


In these times of change

by Laurentia



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-21 16:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1556075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurentia/pseuds/Laurentia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After her capture Zelena moves into Regina's spare room under house arrest. She might not have her magic anymore but she's still able to be a thorn in Regina's side and an epic cock block.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I own nothing!

Acceptance for her new lot in life was not easily come by.

The cuff on her wrist reminded Zelena every moment of every day that the cost of failure had been her liberty, even if her gaolers had eventually allowed her to leave the draughty cell in the Sheriff's station and instead be under house arrest. She had tried to loathe them even more for that; it was quite bad enough that they had defeated her, but for Snow White of all people to comment sympathetically that she looked pale or Emma Swan to banish the men from the room so she could change her clothes was altogether too akin to pity for Zelena's liking.

On the other hand she was altogether too grateful to sit on a soft bed and enjoy having an actual  _door_  to get too worked up about it. She closed her eyes in bliss and enjoyed the simple pleasure of being in a room that smelt of flowers rather than metal and whatever that circular bread with cheese the Saviour always seemed to be eating was.

"Is there anything you need?"

Zelena opened her eyes in annoyance, being reminded sooner than she would like that her smug, supercilious sister was standing in the door like a guard dog. She raised an eyebrow in Regina's direction as she got to her feet, gesturing widely around the guest bedroom, a smile on her lips that didn't even come close to reaching her eyes.

"With all this splendour, what could I possible need? My freedom? My  _magic_?"

"You know what I mean."

"I can get what I  _need_ for myself."

"Actually you can't," Regina said, raising her finger as if to punctuate the point. "The spell means you can't go further than this door or the bathroom over there."

Zelena turned towards the second door but her eyes fell on the window instead. She took steps towards it, feeling slightly less depressed by the sight of some greenery in her view - it was almost like home if the woods had possessed a stray frisbee and a view of Main Street. Still, there were no angry mobs around the former Mayor's mansion, as there had been around the Sheriff's station to begin with, which at least boded well for her staying alive. The last time had meant the Saviour and Charmings guarding her for  _her_ protection in the cell and Zelena didn't think they'd be especially inclined to repeat the gesture if they decided she was more trouble than she was worth.

"You can open the window, but don't even think about trying to climb out."

"Perhaps I'll fly?" She commented dryly, glancing over her shoulder at Regina. "No. Not now you've clipped my wings."

"And burnt your broom."

Zelena turned away with a sneer and reached for the catch on the window, throwing it open violently so the cold, Maine air could blast through and chill the room. One way or another she'd spent her whole life in cold rooms and the smell of rain, grass and dirt made her much more comfortable than Regina's delicate floral arrangements; she could taste the electricity on the moist air and breathed it deeply, feeling it mingle with magic that was still there even if she couldn't use it and she consoled herself with that sensation.

"There's a storm coming."

"Well," Regina shrugged and leaned against the door-frame, her arms folded and her posture bored. "Let's hope it's not a tornado. If a house falls on you in here it'll probably flatten me too and it'd be a shame to die after winning."

Zelena didn't bother to ask what her sister was talking about. During her time at the Sheriff's station she had heard a number of odd references to things that had nothing to do with her life but everyone seemed to find  _hilarious_  until eventually Emma had taken pity on her utter ignorance and told her about the books and films. She wasn't really sure what the latter were but the former might be something to look into… she had nothing better to do at any rate.

"I'll give you a list of things I want."

"No, you'll give me a list of things you  _need_."

* * *

"Regina!"

The Queen turned her head and immediately smiled. Blonde hair whipped across Emma's face as she bounded down the street with Henry in tow, both of them grinning as they approached and Regina's heart swelled with love for the son she thought she'd lost. The fact that her eyes lingered just as much on Emma was lost on her.

"Henry-" He was in her arms before she could form a sentence, clinging to her with affection she knew would not last forever because memory or not he was soon to be a teenager and even if his mother's did have a powerful reputation in town he was hardly like to want to be coddled forever. "Is everything alright?"

"Great! Ma said whoever reached you first got pancakes for breakfast and the loser got whatever healthy thing at Granny's you chose."

Regina turned a withering gaze upon Emma and the blonde had the good graces to look chastised. While Emma got her breath back Regina brushed Henry's hair out of his face to get a better look at him: it seemed to have gotten so long in the last year and he was nearly tall enough to look her in the eye – any thought of rebuking Emma vanished when she saw the open happiness in her son's eyes and she smiled at him helplessly.

"She can have toast."

"Hey!"

"Or I could ask Granny to find you some oatmeal?"

"Toast sounds good after all," Emma said with a resigned sigh. "Lead the way kid."

The walked in companionable silence for a moment, Henry several steps ahead of them and already having pulled his games console out of his pocket. It had been a fortnight since the curse was shattered and Zelena's plans with it and everything had been soothingly dull. It reminded Regina of the long dismal years of the curse but at the moment she would take the calm banality over the madness that didn't seem to have stopped for a second since the first curse had broken.

Her son was home and so was Emma, there was no imminent threat and every time she saw Snow White and Prince Charming they looked tired and harassed - all was right with the world.

"So… how's Zelena?"

Regina rolled her eyes.

"She's fine. You don't have to ask every day Sheriff, she's not going anywhere."

"I know."

"Why do you even care after everything she did? I'm her sister, I feel  _obliged_ ," Regina shook her head in disgust at the familial feelings she wished she didn't have, however slight they were. "But all she ever did was try to kill you."

"Well, better women than her have tried and failed and I got over that," Emma quipped with a smirk, tilting her head towards Regina. The Queen gave her a pointed look but let the jibe go.

"Besides, I know what it's like to be in jail-"

"She's in my  _guest bedroom_  not an oubliette."

"Would it be alright if I visited her?"

They came to a halt outside Granny's to find Henry already inside and at the counter talking animatedly to Robin. The corner of Regina's lips twitched happily at the sight but she refused to let herself be distracted by happiness before dealing with her former nemesis apparently wanting visiting orders for her most recent enemy. She sighed with annoyance and turned back to Emma.

"Are you planning to hurt her?"

"What?! No!"

Regina raised a placating hand.

"Fine, I believe you. I had to make sure." Emma raised her eyebrow and Regina straightened the sleeve of her jacket distractedly. "It's what mother would want me to do."

"Okay," Emma nodded, clearly disbelief on her face. "This is the same mother that left her by the side of the road?"

Brown eyes met green and Regina frowned, ignoring the implied slight against her mother for the much more interesting observation. Emma, for her part, looked oblivious and oddly defensive.

"It was in the woods."

"What?"

"Mother left her in the woods, not by the-"

"Whatever," Emma rolled her eyes and reached to open the door to the diner for Regina. "I'll go tonight when I bring Henry to your house."

* * *

Emma knocked lightly on the door and, receiving no response, grew concerned. Regina had said her  _house guest_  had been quiet all day and Emma still wasn't entirely convinced that the spells would hold a witch that had spent the best part of the last year tossing Regina to the ground by all accounts. So she slipped her head inside the door and, upon realising that the shaft of light from the hallway was falling on the figure in the bed she panicked and went inside, closing the door behind her and found herself in utter darkness.

It occurred to Emma then, and only then, that sneaking up on the Wicked Witch of the West in the dark might be considered a dumbass move. Still, she was here now...

"Zelena?"

There was no response and Emma went closer. Did witches get sick? She had never thought to ask Regina but it suddenly occurred to Emma that the loss of magic in someone so powerful might well make them feel terrible; surely it was her duty as the person who'd officially put Zelena into confinement to make sure her prisoner was faring well? Fuck knows no one had bothered for her when she'd been throwing up her guts every morning.

"Zelena?" She reached the bed as her eyes finally adjusted to the dark and jumped when the woman rolled over and appeared to be… well, sleeping.

 _Fuck_.

Zelena stirred marginally and Emma backed away quickly. The last thing she wanted was to be caught hovering but luck wasn't with Emma and her heel caught the corner of the rug, sending her tumbling to the floor with a yell and a bump.

Zelena shot up in bed, her hands instinctively coming forth to conjure a defence but, luckily for Emma, nothing came from her impotent fingers and after a momentary panic at not being able to use her magic the redhead remembered where she was and why she was helpless. Reaching over to the bedside lamp with a sigh she illuminated her room to find the Saviour sprawled on the ground, looking sheepish and sore.

"Miss Swan…" Zelena sneered groggily at the blonde. "What are  _you_  doing here?"

Emma got to her feet with a huff, straightening her jacket as she did as a cover for rubbing the pain in her back. "I came to see how you were."

"How I- It's the middle of the night."

Emma furrowed her brow and checked her watch.

"It's six thirty."

"It's  _dark_." Zelena snapped with flushed cheeks, folding her arms in an attempt to look intimidating in the pyjamas Regina had given her. More cast-offs from her little sister, she was quite sure. "And it's not as though I have a full social calendar to occupy my evenings."

Emma nodded and hooked her thumbs through the loops on her jeans, standing awkwardly despite being the one upright and in actual clothes rather than green satin. She glanced around the room for something to do, her eyes twitching back to Zelena who continued to look confused and irritated sat up in bed. For the first time Emma saw the resemblance between the Mills women – it was almost as though Regina had half her mother's features and Zelena had the other half, the two sisters looked precious little alike but put together with the image of Cora Mills Emma could see the similarities. She smiled to herself idly.

"Has Regina brought your up here to assess my mental state too?"

Emma snapped out of her musing and frowned.

"What?"

"The cricket was here a few days ago asking me entirely moronic questions. I wouldn't mind so much but he brought the damn dog."

"Not a dog fan?"

"No," Zelena said tonelessly as she pushed a pillow behind her neck as a prop, resigning herself to whatever odd conversation the Saviour seemed to have decided they were going to have.

"Not even little dogs?" Emma asked, trying desperately to keep her tone neutral.

"No," the redhead rolled her eyes and cast a sardonic look upon Emma. "And I know when you're mocking me now. Regina gave me that," she gestured towards the TV in the corner of the room. "And a small silver thing and I saw the  _movie_."

"Really?" Emma snorted. Somehow it had never occurred to her that most of the inhabitants of Storybrooke would have retained their curse memories and would know what this world's interpretation of them was. Her parents had never mentioned it and other than the time she had overheard Ruby threatening to eat her Granny, most citizens seemed to want to ignore their stories. All of a sudden Emma had a burning need to watch  _Snow White_ with Regina.

"I found it offensive," Zelena straightened her shoulders and narrowed her eyes towards the door-frame and Emma understood that it was standing in for Regina. "Which, I imagine, was the point."

"Shit. That bad?"

"Well I never had time to fly around Oz leaving messages in the sky. Nor did I terrorise the munchkins and even being green I credit myself with not being quite so hideous."

"You're not. I mean, I doubt you  _were_  even when you were green." Emma gestured towards Zelena's pyjamas. "You're sort of green now and it looks good."

"It's hardly the same. Was there anything else Swan? I  _was_  trying to sleep."

"No, I guess not," she turned to leave before turning back again almost immediately. "Do you mind if I come again?"

"I'm hardly in a position to dictate your actions."

"You can say no if you want to."

Zelena stared at her for a long moment with an expression Emma couldn't quite read before slowly the redhead nodded and the ghost of a smile came to her lips.

"Fine. But when you come back I'd like any and all depictions of the Evil Queen."

Emma grinned and opened the door.

"There are  _hundreds_."

"Are they flattering?"

"Not really."

Zelena grinned back at her.

"Excellent."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews, they really made me smile! I think I need this fic to soothe my heart after the incident at the end of the last episode. I own nothing. Or else the whole show would be the Mills Family Do-Over.

Zelena looked up from her book at the sound of a tentative knock at her door. She marked her place and called out for Emma to enter, knowing full well that it was unlikely to be anybody else, all the while trying to discern why the visits from the Sheriff made her marginally less annoyed than she thought they should. The blonde poked her head around the door and smiled in greeting, looking unsurprised when the gesture was not returned.

"Hey, do you want a beer?"

The wicked witch stared at her baffled. In the last few weeks Emma had brought her books and oil paints at her request but something so casual was unheard of, probably not sanctioned by Regina and accordingly treated with suspicion.

"A what?"

"Beer. It's a malty drink-"

"Yes I know what beer  _is_ , I used to work in a tavern."

"Really?" Emma's voice was full of shock as she came into the room fully and ran her eyes over the poised woman on the bed. Somehow she couldn't quite reconcile the image of proud Zelena with her Regina-wardrobe and clipped accent running around a bar serving beer. But then Mary Margaret had told them about the glimpses of Cora's young life she had been privy to and the thought of the cold Queen of Hearts being duped into bed by such a corny line still gave Emma trouble.

"Yes," Zelena said shortly, her walls shooting back up at the realisation that she had given something away even if Emma didn't seem inclined to dwell on the tidbit. "I'd prefer wine."

Emma made a noise of irritation and crossed the room, casually plonking herself on the end of the bed. She was far enough away that one or other of them would have to move before they could be considered close but it's the closest anyone's been to Zelena in a month and she immediately inhaled the smell of latent magic, the wood-fire in Regina's living room and the heady scent of  _outside_  that she had been craving. If Emma noticed the odd behaviour she has the good grace not to say anything.

"I figured you would but Regina said something about red wine being thrown on her cream carpet and said you could have beer because you'd have less excuse for spilling a bottle," Emma rolled her eyes and Zelena stared at her confounded, at an utter loss as to why she was being told these things as though they were merely sharing the irritations of the day.

"Fine. Whatever my  _sister_  says I suppose."

Emma's eyes lit up at the agreement and she immediately pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bed, closing her eyes in concentration and holding out her hand. Zelena frowned at her actions before it struck her a moment before the bottle appeared into Emma's hand surrounded by white smoke what the other woman was doing. Emma opened one eye childishly to look at her success and immediately broke into a grin.

"Hell yeah! That would have been so useful over the years."

She held out the bottle but Zelena continued to frown, her mouth setting into a scowl almost as childish as Emma's smile.

"Is that why you came here? To rub it in that you can still do your paltry,  _pointless_ magic and  _I_  can't do anything?!"

"What?! No! I wouldn't-" Emma's eyes went wide with panic and silent apologies before her voice became quiet. "I didn't mean that. Regina just said I should practice wherever I can-"

"Regina told you to do that?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded, baffled for a moment and still annoyed with herself before it dawned on her what Zelena meant. "Oh shit she-"

"Still has the capacity to be just as callous as she ever was?" Zelena pulled the bottle from Emma's limp hand and sniffed at the open end. "I'm amazed it surprises you."

"She's not like that anymore," Emma said firmly, shrugging her shoulders loosely and making no move to leave her spot on the bed. "I mean you know that right? You must see it every day, how different she is to what you thought."

"I can't says I've seen her."

"What? What do you mean? She bring up your food every day," Emma frowned but the other woman's expression turned mocking and she laughed bitterly, telling Emma everything she might need to know about the arrangements at the mansion without a word.

"She sends it up by magic. It appears there," Zelena gestured towards an empty space on the desk. "And if I leave it there it vanished eventually."

"So apart from me…"

"I haven't seen a soul."

Emma shot to her feet immediately, filled with the need to do  _something_  about that, even if she didn't know what or why the hell she felt that strongly about these stupid, bickering, murderous sisters. But for whatever reason she did and she squared her shoulders.

"I'll talk to her. I didn't sign you up for solitary."

"What makes you think she'll listen to you?"

Zelena peered into the bottle and Emma rolled her eyes.

"It's not poisoned, just drink it! And she'll listen, before the last curse we were getting to be friends after… well-"

"After what?" Zelena looked half-way intrigued at the question and Emma wondered whether it would have been wise to word that so it didn't sound quite so… _intriguing._

"After Neverland."

Zelena made a face of disgust as she finally sipped her beer and it took Emma a moment to realise it was the land rather than the beverage that had elicited the response.

"You've been?"

"Once. It was enough."

"Aww, Pan too much for you?" Emma said teasingly, wondering whether there was a single aspect of Regina's life her sister hadn't repeated in some way.

"I never met him. He didn't bother me and I didn't bother him."

"Why'd you go?"

"I needed an ingredient that only grows there but I couldn't stand the sound of crying for long. I'm amazed Snow White's maternal instinct didn't render her helpless…what?"

Emma stared at the redhead for a long moment that left them both feeling distinctly odd, Zelena's confused frown being matched by Emma's incredulous gaze. Eventually Emma snapped out of it and back away quickly to the door, but not before firmly restating:

"I'll talk to Regina."

* * *

In the middle of the day Zelena was usually to be found utilising the exercise bike Regina had sent up with a comment that if Emma was going to insist on giving her beer then she'd better work it off somehow. It was like riding a broom in many ways, although Zelena had to admit the padded seat was more comfortable than a wooden stick and she was pleased with the results.

When Emma poked her head around the door it was to find the Wicked Witch stretching out her muscles in tight black shorts and a white vest top and she found herself making a noise in the back of throat that wasn't unlike a squeak. She dismissed the thought that immediately popped into her head - namely that Zelena's legs were fucking awesome - and put it down as just another one of the weird, confused feelings about different people she'd been having lately. She doubted Killian's legs went on that long though. She cleared her throat to get the other woman's attention and Zelena immediately spun towards her sharply, confusion on her face.

She cleared her throat to get the other woman's attention and Zelena immediately span towards her sharply, confusion on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Long arms folded over her stomach and Emma could clearly see the flush on Zelena's chest from exertion and the way the shirt clung to her muscles and though she would have liked to find other observations Emma wrenched her gaze back up to startled blue eyes.

"David wanted a few hours of no crying so he's finishing my shift," Emma shuffled from one foot to the other, trying to lean on the door in a nonchalant manner. "So I thought I'd come check on you."

"I'm fine," Zelena said airily, raising her shoulders in a shrug. "

"Cool. Regina said I should bring you lunch, but I forgot to go to Granny's."

"So we're both going to starve?" Zelena asked tartly, feeling less on guard and unfolding her arms at last, affording Emma an inadvertent view of the shirt clinging to the contours of her breasts.

"Erm…" the blonde stumbled. "What? Oh no! Can you cook? I can, y'know,  _live_  and all but not well and I thought you'd be a better bet."

Zelena stared at her and spoke as though to a child.

"I'm not allowed out of this room."

Emma rolled her eyes and returned the tone.

"I know that but you're with me so its fine."

"No," Zelena raised her hand to rub her temple, unable to believe that this concept hadn't been explained to the Saviour. "I  _can't_ leave the room."

Much to the witch's surprise Emma laughed at that.

"I'm the Saviour and according to pretty much everyone I'm made of white magic. Even with her personality change do you think there's any magic of Regina's I can't get through?"

Zelena didn't look convinced so Emma decided on a course of action rather than words. It usually worked well to get other Mills' to do what she wanted.

"Come on," she grasped Zelena's hand, trying to ignore the warmth of it, and pulled the surprised woman towards the door, encountering no block herself and then narrowing her eyes in the hope that her move could continue to look cool. Thankfully, and not entirely without some relief on Emma's part, she found herself in the hallway with Zelena next to her.

"Hey," Emma grinned. "Welcome to the rest of the house."

"I killed Neal," Zelena blurted out, immediately pulling her hand from Emma's.

"I  _know_ ," Emma said quietly, although she would be lying if she claimed not to have rationalised the hell out of it. Neal had died because he threw himself into danger, she'd told herself. He'd raised the Dark One, knowing it was dark magic and there would be a price, according to Belle, and paid that price. He'd pulled himself away from his father to help them. Zelena hadn't put a bullet in him or pulled out his heart and Emma had tried to focus on that – manslaughter at best, she told herself. But it kept coming back to Zelena. And Gold. And inevitably Regina and ultimately Cora.

Their families had spent too many years blaming X for Y and Z for X to the point that it made Emma's head spin. She didn't want to fight anymore, Regina certainly didn't either, nor did Snow, and Emma was inclined to listen to those two more than the vengeful Gold.

"I don't understand why you keep coming here."

"Yeah, well, my mom sort of killed your mom. Although so did Regina. But it was mostly because your mom killed my grandmother and then your sister killed my grandfather, because my mom told your mom something she shouldn't and your sister got hurt and turned to Gold so he could teach her the same things he taught your mom."

Zelena's expression remained still and Emma nodded sympathetically.

"Yeah, I know. Mind fuck. And that's just the half of it. I don't want to keep adding to it, so let's just go downstairs and eat okay?"

The red head stared at her with wide eyes, as though not quite able to comprehend what she was being told until eventually she nodded imperceptibly and Emma reached for her hand again.

"Come on."

* * *

"And how long has  _this_  been going on!?"

Regina's eyes blazed as she advanced on the Saviour but Emma, either too brave or too foolish, didn't back down and Zelena watched the two with a raised eyebrow, idly picking at the apple piece she had been able to eat before her sister came in the kitchen and started shouting at Emma. Henry had rolled his eyes when he heard shouting but looked slightly more wary when he'd followed his dark haired mother into the kitchen and been faced with the aunt he had met once and not under stellar circumstances.

Still, he had recovered himself enough – or had enough of Emma's reckless trust – to sit at the breakfast bar with Zelena and wisely watch the fight from the side lines. Zelena hesitated for a long second before she pushed the plate of apple pieces towards him in an offer to share and she was pleasantly surprised when he took one.

"Thanks," he muttered. She smiled tightly.

"The woman has to  _eat_  Regina!"

"Yes! In her room. Where I put sealed her magically. How is she even downstairs?!"

"I… might have something to do with that."

Zelena smirked at the outright fury on her sister's face at the thought of her spell being useless in the face of this amateur. It served her right for underestimating Emma though and Zelena was quite pleased to not find herself directly on the end of somebodies ire for once.

"What did you do?" Regina said with a long-suffering sigh, her hand on her temples.

"Nothing! Really, I didn't, or at least I didn't  _mean_  to. It's just that if she holds my hand she can cross over the barrier. She can't do it on her own though – I checked that the other day!"

Zelena wasn't sure what in that sentence seemed to bother Regina the most. Her jaw seemed to have set itself at least three times and the older witch couldn't tell whether it was because Emma had changed the nature of the spell with no real effort, or because the Saviour had the foresight to check the boundaries and Regina had one less thing to get irate over. Or it could be the admission of the hand-holding. Which was definitely intriguing.

Regina noticed her sister's amusement at the situation and finally seemed to realise that Henry was watching them too.

"Sweetheart, why don't you do through to the den and I'll bring your lunch through."

Henry knew when he was being fobbed off, but without the imminent possibility that one of the women in the kitchen was about to kill the other he jumped on the opportunity to eat while playing on his X-box. He rolled his eyes and muttered a long-suffering "Fine" before slipping off the stool and leaving the room, shooting a final glance at his mothers and a small smile at Zelena. Zelena preened at getting the best end of the deal and turned back to find two sets of eyes on her, one narrowed, the other apologetic.

"I don't care where  _you_  go, but I'd prefer it wasn't here for now."

"Regina-"

"No, it's fine," Zelena said with the same airy tone she had once used on Mary Margaret. "I'll be right out here."

Emma didn't meet her gaze but Regina stared at her back until she was out of the kitchen, before rounding on the blonde.

"What the hell is this about Sheriff? I could understand you feeling sorry for her because of your backgrounds-" Emma sighed and muttered "Come on…" but Regina was undeterred. "But this is getting beyond a joke. You come round here every day and now I find out its to let her out of her room and what? She makes lunch for you?"

"Pretty much," Zelena couldn't see her but she could practically  _feel_  the shrug that Emma gave.

"Why would you eat anything that woman gives you?"

"Well, for one thing she's more generous with mayonnaise than you are and to date nothing she's given me has put Henry into a coma."

Regina's eyes flared with rage and something that resembled hurt. Emma immediately chastised herself for being such an idiot and also for her joking tone – in what world was Regina likely to respond well to unfavourable comparisons to her sister?! – but it was the reference to Henry, with both of them knowing that Zelena could still hear, that really grated on Regina.

"Which is probably because she's never  _heard_  of cholesterol. Forgive me for not wanting you to have a heart attack," Regina muttered sharply, not dignifying the second part with a response.

"Regina-"

But the Queen would hear no more and she stalked away towards the den where Henry was already set up. She passed Zelena in the hall and the sister's stared each other down for a moment before Regina looked away dismissively, speaking loudly enough for Emma to hear in the kitchen too:

"I'll change the spell. You can come out of your room as long as Henry and I are both out but you are  _not_  leaving this house."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm so happy that you're all enjoying this so much - I'm certainly enjoying writing it! Zelena was such a wasted opportunity really and I hope I'm doing her and the rest of the characters some justice, I'm really not very experienced with them yet but I hope I'm getting better! Thank you all so much for the support and for those that are asking, I do plan for this to be Swan Queen in the end but they're not going to get together immediately. There's more sisterly bonding and awkwardness and misjudged affections first!:)

"I think it's for your safety as much as anyone else's y'know?"

Zelena raised an eyebrow as she glanced down at the Saviour. Emma was currently crouched on the floor of the den, fiddling with the little box that Henry seemed so fixated on and looking between two disks speculatively. Eventually she settled on one and popped it into the machine and finally looked up to meet Zelena's gaze, hopeful that the red head understood what she was saying. Of course that would have made things easy and to Emma's knowledge, Zelena never made  _anything_ easy.

"If you go out then someone might try to lynch you or something."

"And here I thought Storybrooke was a terribly sedate town."

"It is, I mean, other than the occasional megalomaniac trying to take over its pretty dull."

"I'm glad I could afford you some entertainment at least."

Emma got to her feet grinning, finally seeming to be satisfied that everything was suitably set up.

"Remind me why we're doing  _this_?"

Emma chuckled and fell inelegantly into the space on the sofa next to where Zelena was curled, kicking her feet up on the coffee table as she began to press buttons to conjure the pictures. Zelena watched the screen cautiously, still not quite used to whatever brand of magic created the images so vividly, but she didn't resist when Emma put a second controller into her hands and arranged her fingers how they apparently needed to be.

"Because I know my son and sooner or later Henry's gonna ask to meet you properly. And when that day comes you can either be 'Cool Aunt Zelena' who can play on his X-box with him or 'Creepy Aunt Zelena' who doesn't know Castle Crashers from Portal."

Zelena rolled her eyes and pursed her lips at the perceived criticism. She highly doubted she would get to be either kind of aunt if Regina had her way but for whatever beguiling reason Emma Swan seemed to have declared herself as her personal champion and Zelena had overheard a number of arguments now. Each of them began with some aspect of her incarceration but quickly descending into something Zelena recognised as being much more personal and inevitably ended with the two of them standing so close she wouldn't be surprised if they could see each other's back teeth. She  _would_ have made assumptions about the nature of their relationship but as far as Zelena knew the pirate and the thief were still in the picture and she knew so little about matters of the heart – much to her chagrin – that she could hardly judge them correctly.

It was probably Regina's fault if things were complicated between her and the Saviour. Emma had never presented herself as being anything other than charming – even if Zelena still had no clear reason why the blonde woman sought her company out - perhaps with the town out of jeopardy for the most part Emma was simply bored? She had spent enough time with the dwarfs in the station to know quite how tedious  _they_  were so she wouldn't blame Emma for that, but surely she had actual friends, rather than a witch stripped of her powers she felt sorry for to talk to?

Zelena watched Emma closely as the other woman clicked buttons to make new screens come up, her gaze never wavering, as she never had quite mastered the art of subtlety.

"I know plenty about portals should Henry wish to ask," she said in a pointedly wicked tone that finally drew Emma's attention. For a moment green eyes bore into hers until eventually Emma breathed out a quiet snort of laughter and turned back to the screen.

"Nice try. You're not getting out of taking your turn playing X-box with him by pretending to be, well-"

"Wicked?"

Emma's head fell against the back of the sofa as she looked at the ceiling.

"Seriously? We're still there? I thought you'd stopped thinking that."

"Why would I stop believing in something I know to be true?"

"What?" Emma frowned and turned her gaze back towards Zelena, her eyes altogether softer now. "You know you're not wicked right?" she asked matter-of-factly, the noises from the game fading into the background as both their controllers fell limp in their hands. "You got a lot wrong, but you're trying now, I know you are even if you like to pretend you're not."

"So you think like Regina, that evil, or wickedness, isn't born it's made?" Zelena said, her eyes narrowing.

"Absolutely."

"Then how do you reconcile that with you being born  _good_  and  _pure_? How can Snow White and Prince Charming have a child called the Saviour, but the Queen of Hearts and some nobody can't have a child that's wicked?"

"Because the Saviour stuff is bullshit too." Emma insisted, her voice getting high-pitched with agitation.

"It was your destiny and you fulfilled it. You couldn't escape your destiny and neither could I," Zelena said bitterly.

"You think your destiny was to be beaten and spend your days making a mess of Regina's kitchen with me as I try to show you the finer points of gaming?"

"Obviously not," Zelena said sharply and Emma got the message that whatever else she said today, it would be best not to make it mocking for the time being. "But it was once my destiny to be the greatest evil in all Oz, I couldn't avoid that so what was the point in fighting it? I was destined to be wicked there and here."

"Who the hell told you that?"

Zelena's fight seemed to drift away at that and Emma watched with confusion as the red head schooled her features back into irritation rather than the glimpse of… was that  _sorrow_  she'd seen? It had certainly resembled it, and Zelena had resembled Regina for a second, the way the Queen got when she was reminded of past deeds she wished to forget and couldn't and immediately put her walls back up. Emma felt a surge of rage whip through her body and she couldn't decide whether it was directed at Gold or Cora: no matter which Mills sister she was around she never failed to see the stamp of their ambitions, failures and cruelties on one of the women. It didn't excuse their own actions, even Emma couldn't rationalise that much, but if the spell for time travel wasn't so clearly deranged then she'd merrily go back and beat the crap out of Rumplestiltskin and the Queen of Hearts before any of this started.

Of course then Regina wouldn't be here and the chances of Henry existing were slim to none. And there'd be no Zelena to spend her afternoons with either and despite herself Emma knew she'd miss that too. Feeling bold Emma reached out her hand to press tentatively against Zelena's arm, careful to go slowly less the other woman jump out of her skin and try to hit her with a bottle like last time.

"Zelena…?"

"Nothing." She shook her head and red curls fell around her face. "No one," she said with more conviction before raising her chin and re-tightening her grip on the controller. "Show me how to do this."

* * *

"Go away Regina."

The tone was dull and the instruction clear but the woman it was directed at didn't heed the words. Instead she raised her hand to illuminate the room with the standing lamp before thinking better of her action – Emma had already chastised her for using magic around Zelena, as though her older sister had any right to be upset after what she had tried to do, but Regina was reminded all too easily of how it had felt to be with her mother, knowing that the other woman's magic was powerful enough to tear her apart if Cora had wished it. Regina had made the decision to give her sister a second chance and though the red head grated on her, she was determined to stick to it: and Emma was right, rubbing it in was not the action of a hero.

Her heels sank into the carpet as she crossed the room to flick the switch herself, casting a warm glow upon the figure on the bed that contrasted with the excessively chilly room. If she hadn't already known it to be true she would have declared her sister insane on the basis of her insisting on the window still being open despite it being late November. Zelena was turned away from her, apparently unaffected by the wind, curled on her side and still enough that Regina might have mistaken her for sleeping had it not been for the heavy breathing and shaking shoulders.

"Zelena?"

The older woman curled in on herself more, ignoring Regina as best she could, which became increasingly difficult when Regina sat down on the other side of the bed. Zelena shuffled marginally further away and Regina was forcibly reminded of how Henry had been as a child, apparently the lack of a blood relationship didn't mean Zelena was any less childish.

"Leave me alone."

"I will, once you tell me what's wrong."

Zelena laughed humourlessly and reached up a hand to wipe at her eyes carelessly.

"Why would you care?"

Regina sighed and shuffled closer herself, pulling her knees onto the bed and reaching out her hand to fiddle with the corner of a pillow innocuously.

"Because whether we like it or not we  _are_  sisters and I'm worried that if you get too upset you'll go green again and scare Henry."

Zelena twisted her head to at her sharply, unamused by the quip, but she was surprised to find an unnervingly soft and sympathetic look in Regina's gaze.

"Made you look."

Zelena sniffed and buried her head in the pillow again with a mumble of something Regina chose not to hear.

"Have I done something?" No response. "Has Emma?" There was a slight twitch but she would hardly call it conclusive. "Fine. Don't tell me."

Regina shrugged her shoulders despite the fact that her sister wasn't looking and reached for the blanket at the bottom of the bed, pulling it over Zelena's body. The older woman might be a cold enthusiast but the last thing Regina wanted was for her to actually get  _sick_ : her house guest was annoying enough at the best of times, the thought of her with flu filled Regina with dread.

"Why are you still here?"

"I really have no idea."

"Go away Regina-"

"No-"

"I can feel you shivering from here!"

With a sharp flick of her wrist Regina closed the window and immediately regretted it when Zelena sat up quickly and rounded on her. At least it had roused her though, which was something.

"Have you come to taunt me now?!"

"No," Regina said calmly, contrasting against her sister's tear-streaked face and hysterical voice, reaching out for her hand after a second's indecision. Other than the fights they'd had before they had never  _actually_  touched and it struck Regina immediately that Zelena had the same long fingers and thin palm as their mother; there was still a smell of crackling magic about the red head too that reminded her of Cora Mills and Regina wondered if she closed her eyes whether she might just about be able to fool herself.

"No, I haven't."

Zelena laughed sadly and Regina knew she could never mistake her sister for her mother – Cora was cold and heartless and in this moment there was nothing heartless about her sister, the Queen of Hearts had never doubted herself but Zelena, trembling with cold more than she wanted to admit and holding the blanket around her shoulders without acknowledging where it had come from, sounded too lost to be frightening. Then and there Regina decided she could meet Henry properly soon on the basis of not being their mother alone.

"Heroes don't taunt I take it?"

"No they don't."

Zelena nodded and met Regina's gaze challengingly.

"But you're not a hero are you?"

It occurred to Regina when she felt her sister's fingers thread through hers desperately that Zelena hadn't let go of her hand yet and the contact made the sting of her question dull. It was more contemplative than aggressive anyway and Regina gave the other woman a small smile, her thumb tentatively stroking cold skin.

"I'm getting there."

* * *

"Enough of this!"

Regina stalked through the sitting room and gratifyingly it took Emma only a moment to jump to her feet with wide eyes. The blonde was fairly sure she wasn't due at the station, Henry was here so it wasn't her turn to fetch him from school and Regina had given her a key to the mansion in case she needed it and Zelena being lonely might not have been an  _emergency_ per say but still…

"Is something wrong?"

Regina softened her look towards Emma almost unconsciously but she was immediately rendered irate again when Zelena rolled her eyes and huffed from where her body was elegantly poised on the sofa, leaning on the backrest with her legs tucked underneath her and a controller in her lap.

"What have I done this time?" Zelena asked petulantly, tempted to pull Emma back down into the seat beside her so they at least had something of a united front. And could finish their game! But the blonde darted out of her reach and instead hovered around Regina, fiddling with her fingers.

"I'm tired of you eating nothing but sandwiches and macaroni and cheese in my house."

Emma frowned and glanced towards the kitchen.

"We cleaned up-"

"I know you did Sheriff. And you misunderstand me. Both of you in the kitchen now. I'm going to show you how to make something that won't kill you by the end of the year."

Emma groaned and muttered about keeping the kid alive for a year but she dutifully turned off the TV and reached for Zelena's hand to pull her out of her groove in the sofa with a mutual sigh of long-suffering. Henry laughed at them both and Zelena smiled at him tentatively, considered whether she'd done anything half as productive as making an ally of Emma Swan in all the years she'd tried to get to her sister.

"How was school kid?"

"It was okay. The kids in my class think mom's building a coven," mother and son rolled their eyes at the same time. "But I put them straight."

"I'm waiting!" Regina called from the kitchen and the three of them trooped after her.

"Mom, can we make brownies instead?"

"Henry-"

"Please? You can show aunt Zelena your secret recipe!"

Emma watched the exchange with a small smile and through watching Regina's eyes she was quite sure she could see the exact moment the Mayor caved.

An hour and two batches later Henry tossed a chocolate chip in the air for Emma to catch in her mouth as Zelena surreptitiously dusted the flour off her hands onto her sister's dark hair, taking care to sprinkle it all over. Regina rounded on the other two  _allegedly_  grown women, hands on hips and tasteful pink apron covered with stray chocolate and flour but she couldn't maintain her irritation for long. It was a wildly domestic scene and Henry was exceedingly pleased with himself for engineering it – being in New York had been awesome but there had always been something missing and now he knew the truth he was determined to have everyone together.

"I've added something to the recipe," Regina held out a pencil to her sister as she gestured vaguely with her free and very messy hand towards where her homemade recipe book was open on the counter. "As you're hands are  _flour-free_ now you can write it down."

The smirk that had been gracing Zelena's face immediately vanished, to be replaced by absolute horror and blue eyes flitted between her sister and the book; had Regina not been able to see for herself she would have assumed the other woman was about to be attacked. The red head was immediately tense and on edge and it contrasted violently against the almost-pleasant attitude she'd had for the last hour.

A battle seemed to be waged behind Zelena's eyes and Regina glanced at the other two inhabitants of the kitchen, glad to see they were distracted by chocolate still and currently raiding the fridge for other goodies. Zelena doubted she would get away with not being embarrassed in front of  _some_  of this family and grudgingly she chose Regina as the lesser humiliation.

"No…I…"

Regina's eyes flicked first to Emma, then to Henry, making sure they were still distracted, before taking a step towards her sister and speaking in a low tone.

"You can't?"

"No," Zelena replied tight-lipped. "I can read, you've seen me do that, but I never needed to…" she rolled her hand in a gesture that was decidedly imperial but Regina understood that she was struggling to say the words. Regina nodded immediately and reached out to briefly wrap her fingers around Zelena's thin wrist, before almost immediately letting go. She had come across a few people here and there since the curse had broken – people that weren't part of the general angry mob crowd – who had silently thanked her with extra groceries or gratuitously waxing her car for delivering them from the miserable peasantry they had been born into. It hadn't occurred to her that her own sister would be from the same stock.

"It's fine. I'll do it," she crossed to the sink to rinse her hands, nudging the mixing bowl towards her sister as she went. "For once, I  _will_  swap."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hope you guys all enjoy this chapter - we're veering slightly away from it just being the three of them all the time but I have some (hopefully!) juicy one on one scenes coming soon! As ever, thank you all so much for the reviews, they're making this one of the nicest writing experiences I've ever had in a fandom :)

It felt to Zelena that no sooner had she gotten used to eating her evening meals in solitude upstairs her routine was upset again by Regina telling her it was stupid for them to sit at either end of the house and ordering her to the dining room. For two nights it had been just the two of them – both evenings had been almost unbearably quiet if reasonably cordial with only the mildest of jibes passing between them – but they had survived and Friday night brought with it the Sheriff and Henry.

"Are you saying that taking Grumpy in isn't a skill?" Emma tilted her head in mock-annoyance as she gestured towards the woman opposite her with a fork. "You seem to be forgetting how strong he is when he's drunk."

"Of course if you listened to me and practiced your magic," Regina said tartly, reaching for her wine glass with a pointed rise of her eyebrow. "Then you wouldn't be covered in bruises."

Emma rolled her eyes before looking first to Henry who was too busy with his meal to back her up, and then to Zelena who averted her gaze the second it was caught. Emma could hardly blame her. Zelena might be less abrasive than she had been at the beginning, and the impetus to destroy Regina seemed to be diminishing, but Emma couldn't foresee a time in the near future when the loss of her magic, the one thing she'd had that was almost better than Regina's, wouldn't be a sore subject.

"I can take care of myself without magic."

Emma sat back in her seat at the unnervingly simultaneous look of incredulity that came over both the sister's features and she cursed herself. This was definitely not the crowd to suggest magic wasn't everything to!

"Woah, that was weird," Henry muttered to her left and Emma nodded mutely, unable to find their reaction anything other than  _cute_  but not having nearly enough of a death wish to point it out.

"Have you forgotten how easily I tossed you on your backside before I lost my pendant?"

Regina smirked at the wounded pride on the Saviour's face but it didn't escape her notice that Zelena's attitude was changing: she had  _lost_  her pendant now, rather than Regina being the one to take it. The former Queen filed that particular titbit away for later thought and instead focussed on the amusing spectacle of Emma Swan's face as Zelena recalled the portion of the fight that had involved her throwing Emma to the ground, rather than her attack on Regina.

It was almost as though she was trying to forget that moment had ever happened at all, Regina mused idly as she sipped her wine and Emma tried to pretend she'd been  _totally in control of the situation so there_.

"Fine, whatever," Emma conceded grudgingly, shrugging carelessly and reaching for her beer. "I could kick your ass now though."

Henry giggled and Regina tensed for a moment that was apparently unnecessary when her sister surprised her by not throwing her plate at Emma's head. Instead Zelena coolly raised her eyebrow as she levelled her gaze on the Saviour, the slightest twitch of her lips being the only giveaway to her amusement.

"Is that so?"

"Erm…" Emma snorted. "Yeah. Magic's one thing-" Zelena's lips thinned for a moment and Emma quickly carried on. "But you and Regina wear all those pencil skirts and stilettos so you'd be kinda awkward."

"I'd say that just gives us additional weapons."

Zelena glanced sideways to meet Regina's eye and they both smirked in the same devilish way that made Emma shuffle in her seat and clear her throat. Her lips felt suddenly dry, much to her despair, and she gripped her beer bottle tighter than was strictly necessary until the sisters stopped doing things with their lips that Emma suspected would come back to haunt her in bed later. It had been happening more and more lately and so far Emma had been trying to ignore what it might mean.

She smiled awkwardly and gestured towards Regina with the neck of her bottle.

"Maybe, but you were Queen so I doubt you ever actually had to do any fighting of your own right?"

"On the contrary Miss Swan, I rode into battle frequently."

Emma's expression froze as she imagined Regina atop a horse, in the clothes she'd seen in Henry's book, fierce and barking orders and Emma suddenly felt lightheaded and like her whole body was heating up. Coughing slightly Emma took off her sweater out of sheer necessity and when the knitwear had finished going over her head she was beguiled to find two pairs of eyes looking away quickly from her chest.

_What the hell?!_

"Against Grandma?" Henry asked and Emma immediately tensed despite the tone being more inquisitive than accusatory. Things had been unbelievably good since they'd stopped Zelena; Snow and Regina had been almost friends and if Emma thought it was a wonder to behold then it was nothing to how Henry viewed the friendship between his newly heroic mom and secretly badass grandma.

"Yes, my armies and King George's waged war against Snow and David's," Regina said carefully and Emma admired the guile of it. This way it wasn't  _just_  Regina that had fought battles, and neither was she the lone force that had opposed the Charmings back in the Enchanted Forest. Henry nodded with interest and took a bite of his food, his gaze shifting inevitably to the other woman opposite him.

"Aunt Zelena? What was Oz like?"

Emma laughed silently to herself at the casually posed question, wondering quite how long her super inquisitive son had been  _dying_ to ask that. It never failed to amuse Emma that her son was always more intrigued by the people he  _hadn't_  met rather than those he had – apparently Snow White and the Evil Queen were slightly less interesting in the face of the honest to god Wicked Witch of the West.

"Like any place really. Lots of woodlands-"

"Did the trees really throw apples at people?"

"Only useless red ones." The purse of Regina's lip did nothing to help Emma's temperature, and neither did the smug, preening smile her sister gave her.

"And the Yellow Brick Road, is that real?"

Emma glanced at Regina subtly and the brunette seemed to be thinking the same thing – under no circumstance was Henry allowed to investigate routes into Oz.

"Of course. It was built centuries ago, no one knows who did it anymore."

"And it really leads to the Emerald City?"

"In Oz all roads leads to the capital city eventually."

"Did you really rule the West?"

"For a little while," Zelena answered truthfully Emma could tell with her power but it was definitely evasive.

"And have those guards?"

Zelena furrowed her brow for a moment, but Emma knew she had read her own tale and finally something occurred to her.

"Oh the Winkies? No, they're really quite short in real life and I didn't need an army of midgets."

"And-?"

"Kid, maybe let the woman eat for a sec yeah?" Emma grinned, kicking her foot against Henry's under the table.

"Just one more?" Emma rolled her eyes and looked to Zelena, who looked more amused than anything as she nodded and sipped her wine. "Fine."

"Is Glinda real?"

"Yes," Zelena answered shortly, her grip on the glass in her hand getting suddenly tighter.

Regina's eyes flickered to her sister's white knuckles with concern and more than a little bit of confusion: she hadn't met the Good Witch of course, and Snow and Charming had hardly been in the right state of mind to give her a description of her but she knew the stories perfectly well. The Evil Queen knew better than anyone else how skewered their stories had become in this world, but every time there was a Wicked Witch there was a Glinda and it struck Regina as being notable that her sister had never mentioned the other witch when she clearly didn't mind talking about Oz with Henry.

Regina storied that away for later thought later too, deciding quickly that discerning the nature of the relationship between the witches of the South and West might be a task for another day given how quickly Zelena clammed up.

"Who wants apple pie for desert?"

"I do!" "Me!"

Mother and son chimed in together and the mention of desert made them focus on finishing their dinner as Regina had hoped. Next to her she watched surreptitiously as Zelena struggled to calm her clearly troubled emotions; knowing as she did that the older woman had never had the  _benefit_ of Cora's tuition Regina didn't hold her breath for the volatile witch controlling herself alone.

Under the table Regina subtly reached for her sister's hand.

* * *

"Took you long enough dear."

It had been thirty years but the ability of that voice to send a shiver up and down her spine, half-fear, half-thrill, had not wavered. Everything had changed for her but nothing had changed for Maleficent in all that time thanks to the nature of her confinement and Regina wondered whether their last disagreement, the one that had ended in a fight, felt like only yesterday to the disgraced fairy. It was at least a lifetime ago for Regina but one never knew with Maleficent – Cora had taught her the meaning of power, Rumple had taught her how to wield it, Leopold had taught her fear of losing yourself and Snow had taught her to trust nobody. No one in all the kingdoms in all the worlds had taught her what a grudge looked like as much as Maleficent had.

Although she suspected Zelena could probably give the dragon a run for her money these days.

She found Maleficent exactly where everyone had said she would be, which didn't surprise her in the slightest. After the new curse some things had definitely been different and some people altered, and it had been widely known that the creature who had once dwelled in the Forbidden Fortress had returned. Regina had been concerned for all of about half an hour until she heard from Ruby, who had been unofficially assigned to follow the other shape-shifter, that Maleficent had moved into the abandoned lighthouse by the sea and the blonde hadn't been heard from since.

It was hardly the bloody vengeance Regina had been expecting but with their memories to recover and a sororal wicked witch to fight she hadn't given Maleficent's presence undue thought. Now though, there was need of her wisdom once again and Regina climbed the steps in the rotting building to find a figure sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, the view of the open sea all around then and the smell of roasting meat coming from close-by.

"I've been busy. I'm sure you must know what's been going on."

"Hmmm, yes. A sister Regina? I bet you two have been having quite the time squabbling over shoes and who can pull each other's hair the hardest."

Regina smiled tightly and without humour, but so far the fairy hadn't thrown her bodily from the window so it was a start.

"Thank you for lending a hand with that by the way."

Maleficent finally looked away from her view, turning her head slowly towards Regina and the former Queen felt her blood run cold for a moment. This was not the woman she had known.

Maleficent of the past had been beautiful, animalistic rage flashing in her eyes on occasion only to be immediately followed by wry wisdom; when Regina had first met her as a young Queen she had been bewitched by the graceful fairy and that feeling had never truly left her. The vestiges of that woman remained, but the skin, once blooming, was older and the eyes duller. The graceful line of Maleficent's throat remained the same but though the blonde's body had always been thin, she could now see the sharp bones poking through her collar and cheeks. She wasn't quite skeletal, probably because she'd had a few weeks to eat and put on weight, but it was a far cry from the what she had been.

That woman had been all strength and coiled sensuality; even to this day Regina still occasionally thought of long, toned thighs between hers, soft breasts she'd rested her head upon and strong arms she'd allowed to encase her.

This woman was older. Scarred. Regina blanched – it was her doing, this  _creature_  she had reduced her once proud lover to. On the other hand, whatever had become of her body, nothing seemed to be wrong with her mind and Maleficent cocked an eyebrow in her direction, eyes narrowing.

"And what could  _I_  have done? White magic was what you needed and that I cannot provide."

"You knew that all along?"

"Of course," Maleficent drawled as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well  _that_  would have been helpful to know."

Maleficent shrugged idly and turned her head back to the expanse of glass, closing her eyes to relish the feel of the dying winter sun on her face. Regina could hardly begrudge her – even if she didn't know it for a fact she could guess by the state of the woman's skin that she hadn't seen daylight in decades.

"Can I sit down?"

"You're the Mayor aren't you? You own the whole town."

"I was being polite."

"Well it doesn't suit you  _your majesty_."

Regina took that as the best invitation she was likely to get and slipped into the matching armchair the other side of the side-table by Maleficent. It was almost precisely how they had sat for all the long years of their acquaintance and Regina felt a sense of familiarity that her heart devoured – Henry was her home now, him and Emma and Zelena and the strange little world they were creating, but this woman had been one of the few good things in her miserable existence before the curse. It was difficult to forget Maleficent now she was here before her again.

"Are you doing okay up here? No one's seen you since we arrived back."

"I'm fine," Maleficent stared outside, flexing her fingers in her lap and Regina quickly scanned the room, spotting a familiar staff not far from her old friend's chair. The space where the orb had once rested was empty but the twisting black wood was still the same, charred a little perhaps but Regina knew the power that the staff possessed all too well and didn't feel like challenging it, white magic or not. "But you didn't come to ask after my health."

"No," Regina admitted quietly, steadily observing the blonde woman, preparing herself just in case. "How are you still alive?"

"I've no idea."

"Maleficent-"

"Regina," the fairy said pointedly, cutting her off. "I don't know. I was  _there_  then back in the Enchanted Forest, and then here again. This time you didn't catch me off-guard and lock me up so here I sit," Maleficent spread her long fingers wide and Regina noticed the scars that littered her fingers and realised immediately where they had come from. Maleficent would have woken up in the basement again, this time in her human form and Regina could imagine her clawing across the stone and dirt until she reached the hatch out.

"Is there anyone else here, that wasn't here before?"

Maleficent finally turned her still well-coiffed head towards the Queen, her eyes narrowed, knowing full well that Regina had finally arrived at what she wanted to ask.

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter  _why_ ," Regina snapped before pressing her lips together, irritated at herself for snapping when she needed Maleficent at the moment. "It just matters who. And where they might be."

Maleficent stared at her for an excruciatingly long pause, her eyes never flickering away from Regina's imploring gaze and the Queen could see the older woman's mind whirring. Maleficent held a grudge longer than anyone Regina had ever known, but then this was a shadow of the woman she had known and Regina was beginning to learn from experience that all vendettas could be let go.

"What's it worth to you Regina?"

The Queen tilted her head and smirked. "You're beginning to sound like Rumple, dear."

"I would hope that my skin wasn't as bad as  _that_."

* * *

"Can I be of assistance?" Zelena asked innocently, placing a tray of mugs on the bench as she watched Emma and Regina fail yet again at the task in hand.

Regina rolled her eyes and turned towards her sister with her axe firmly in hand, raising her eyebrow at the question and trying not to recall how easily she had given in to letting Zelena out of the house for fresh air when Henry had asked her to. There was still a force-field around the garden – that much she had refused to negotiate – but the patent leather boots Zelena had forced her to buy off eBay had trod across the crisping grass many times now.

"Am I really likely to hand  _you_  an axe?"

As Regina tilted her head to the side with a disdainful expression, Zelena sneered in her direction but Henry could see the corners of both their lips twitching and he grinned, glancing towards Emma to share the enjoyment. For her part the blonde was too busy shuffling from foot to foot as she sized up the wood, her own axe hanging limp and her cheeks pink from the exertion of trying to split the logs properly.

"Well as you and Emma are having  _so much success_  do continue sis."

With a mug clutched between her fingers Zelena leaned against the bench casually, waving her hand in an invitation for them to continue. Regina refused to rise to the mocking but potential homicidal intentions with the axe aside she couldn't see how Zelena could be  _worse_  at this. Using magic would have made things so much easier, but as per Henry's insistence, she was determined to make this holiday season as devoid of the very thing that had nearly cost him his life in the last few years as possible.

Which meant chopping wood by hand.

"We should have asked David," Regina said for the third time.

"Like he doesn't have enough to do for baby's first Christmas," if the other two women noticed the bitterness in Emma's tone they at least had the good graces to keep quiet about it. Instead Regina looked towards the red head out of the corner of her eye and they shared a surreptitious glance in shared annoyance at the Charmings for no real reason beyond that they could. "Besides," Emma brightened and pushed back her hair with a smile. "I'm usually pretty handy with weapons."

"It isn't a weapon, it's a tool," Zelena piped up as she blew on her tea to cool it.

"What's the difference?" Emma asked childishly. "They both chop stuff right?"

Zelena rolled her eyes, carefully placing her mug on the bench and stalking towards Emma, reaching out for the axe. She was too aware of Regina's supervisory gaze to snatch something like that from Emma, but the blonde was trusting enough that she handed it over without a second thought.

"If it was a  _battle_ axe then it would be a weapon and the weight would make even the most pathetic throw do some damage, but a normal axe is designed for people with some degree of accuracy. Like this…"

With a strong swing downwards Zelena made short work of splitting the log Emma and Regina had managed to chip so far. At best. The axe was slightly stuck in the block so Zelena propped her foot on the wood and pulled it free easily, smiling triumphantly towards the others to find Henry grinning, Regina raising an eyebrow in surprise and Emma staring at her with wide eyes, mouth hanging open.

"Shall I do the rest?" Zelena asked smugly. "Or else we'll be out here all day."

"Where did you learn that?" Henry was immediately by her side gazing up at her with open admiration and she wondered suddenly whether this was all it would have ever taken to infiltrate Regina's world: a knowledge of Oz and skill with an axe.

"My  _father_  was a woodcutter in our village. In the winter I had to help."

"What happened to him?" Henry asked innocent but the moment the question had left his lips Emma jumped between them to reach the bench.

"Come here kid, your aunt made you hot chocolate and it'll get cold."

"With cinnamon?"

"Of course," Zelena managed with a small, tight smile, waiting for Emma to lead the boy away before she gripped the axe harder and turned towards Regina. The Mayor didn't flinch but instead raised a subtle hand until Emma got the message from their silence and talked Henry back inside, leaving the sisters alone.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"You killed your father too didn't you?" Zelena said in a grim tone that the Queen found quite galling after so many weeks of almost-friendliness and prompted only a mute nod from Regina.

"Do you ever talk about  _that_?"

Regina conceded the point and decided that today was not the day for them to have that particular conversation.

"Do you want to chop the rest of the wood?"

"If you insist," Zelena sighed but was already crouched down picking out another log before Regina could reply. With a small smile and a shake of her head the Mayor turned back towards the house, assuming Zelena would like a moment alone with the axe and some unsuspecting wood, only to be immediately confronted with Emma Swan standing in the door-frame staring right past her at her sister bending over.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry about the delay between chapters - hopefully I'll be a bit quicker and especially now I've worked out exactly where this is going! Thank you all so much for the reviews, I'm so pleased you're all enjoying this and I hope you carry on liking it!

"Hey Ruby! You got a sec?"

The waitress paused in her mid-morning text checking and glanced around the positively empty diner. Since the wicked witch's defeat things had returned to what passed for normal in Storybrooke and as such there weren't quite so many concerned crowds hanging around the diner at 11pm. Turning back to Emma with a pointed raise of her eyebrow Ruby pocketed her phone

"Well I'm pretty rushed off my feet but I'm sure I could spare time for you."

Emma heaved a sigh of relief, completely missed the sarcasm and pulled herself onto a stool, taking a good look around the diner for the third time since she'd come inside, just to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. All she saw were two people she didn't know in the corner booth and the faint flash of Granny's cardigan every time the woman went past the hatch to the kitchen where she was prepping for lunch. Which probably meant this wouldn't get back to the people she wanted it kept from. But only  _probably_  knowing them.

"Thanks," she waited for Ruby to pour them both a cup of coffee and took a deep, calming breath as she tried to manage her thoughts into something resembling sense that she could ask Ruby's advice about rather than the muddle that was currently running through her head.

"What's up?"

"Okay," Emma took another deep breath, staring determinately at the counter because at least that wasn't going to laugh at her. "I can't decide which one I want."

"Emma," the tall brunette rolled her eyes and reached for a napkin. "If you want a bearclaw  _and_  a croissant just say-"

"No, not  _that_ ," Emma groaned.  _Why wasn't this easy_?! "I can't decide  _who_  I want."

"Who?" Ruby asked, leaning in closer for the promise of gossip and grinning from ear to ear. She knew about Emma's ongoing rejection of Hook, but she hadn't realised that there was somebody else. With Neal out of the picture most of the town had assumed it was a foregone conclusion that the Saviour would be won over by the pirate who had pursued her so determinately, but apparently there was new meat in the mix. Ruby felt a brief stab of sorrow as she remembered the friendship she'd had with Emma when she'd just been  _Ruby_ ; back then Emma would have told her about a mystery man, but now the Sheriff wasn't just her lemur, she was also her best friend's grown up daughter and  _that_  was certainly something their gossiping hadn't survived. "Do I get to know the contenders?"

"Regina and Zelena."

It took Ruby a moment to realise what Emma meant but when she did her eyes went immediately wide as saucers and she grinned excitedly.  _That_  has certainly been something she'd always thought Emma was holding back from her – at least when it came to Regina – and she nearly jumped with glee at being proven right.

"Holy shit Emma!"

"Shhhhh! For God's sake Rubes, the whole diner doesn't need to know!"

Ruby had the good graces to blush but a second later the grin reappeared on the waitresses face and she leaned over the counter to speak in a low tone just to Emma, despite the near-emptiness of the room.

"Seriously though? They're kind of… I mean, don't get me wrong, they're hot and all but aren't they kinda evil?"

"No," Emma said, almost sadly. If they were despicable and irredeemable then this would be so much easier, but instead she was stuck with her stupid thoughts about stupid Mills sisters and their stupid good intentions. God, she'd hate them if their combined boot collection didn't feature in half her dreams. "They're not."

"But both of them? I always thought you had a thing about Regina but  _Zelena_  too?"

Emma sighed and slumped across the counter to rest her head on her arms. It had seemed like a good idea to tell Ruby her troubles – god knows she needed to tell  _somebody_  before she went insane – but actually voicing it out-loud made her feel decidedly queasy.

"Yeah."

Ruby's face lit into an irrepressible grin.

"You want 'em separately or at the same time?"

"What? No! God…I want  _one of_  them, I just don't know which one." Emma growled at the back of her throat in deep annoyance. It would make life so much easier if her stupid head could just  _choose_ but like a freight train Ruby's words rattled through her brain until she was left with the thought of long red curls and silky dark strands mingling together on a bed that was waiting for her. She growled again and blinked away the image.

"So do you think one of them might…?" Ruby asked curiously. She knew Regina of course and would have put good money on Emma's little crush being reciprocated, but she had only ever  _seen_  Zelena and even then it was at a distance whilst she taunted others. Which hadn't exactly left Ruby with a lot of time to consider whether she had nice legs or a liking for blondes.

"If I knew then I wouldn't feel like burying my head-" Ruby held up a hand.

"Woah Em, I don't think I want to know where that sentence is going."

"In the  _ground_  Ruby, god! Like, if I go round there I'll be hanging with Zelena 'cause she's  _always_  there and it's nice and she's kind of cool and I start to think I might have some feelings, and then Regina turns up and she's  _Regina_ and I just don't know what I'm doing."

"Holy shit."

Emma nodded. She wished Ruby had something more concrete to add but for the moment she'd take somebody who at least expressed what Emma thought was the right level of bewilderment.

"Any thoughts?" She asked, without much hope as she sipped her coffee.

Ruby smiled ruefully; she had never claimed to be an expert in relationships, but for whatever reason she had ended up as Emma's go-to for advice and she was glad for  _that_  at least. The predicament was pretty much impossible, though she doubted Emma needed to be told that, and Ruby could think of very little to add.

"I think you're lucky Cora's dead because you don't seem capable of being indifferent to a single Mills."

"Thanks, really helpful."

"What do you want me to say?" Ruby shrugged good-naturedly. "For what it's worth I think you've been waiting for Regina for longer."

"No I haven't! I never even  _thought_  about that before-"

"Are you serious?" Ruby laughed as Emma's whole demeanor became defensive. "You've had a thing about Regina from about ten minutes after you met her Em."

"No I... I just..." Emma trialed off and buried her head in her arms again. "Oh shit."

Ruby nodded to herself, watching Emma as a teacher might watch a child reaching a simple answer in math class.

"Oh shit..." Emma scrunched up her face for a moment before it cleared and she looked horrified. "Apart from last year when I didn't remember any of you I don't think I've  _not_  thought about Regina for a single day since I met her."

"And the penny drops."

"Shut up," Emma said dryly, achieving nothing but making Ruby laugh. "What would you do?"

"Honestly? Probably get drunk and see what happened."

"That doesn't sound like the best idea with Regina Mills. And Zelena hates drunks."

"Your girlfriend's sound high maintenance."

"Oooh, speaking of high maintenance," Emma said pointedly, reaching into her pocket for the list Regina had dictated at her first thing that morning, glad to change the subject after realising that Ruby's help was going to be useless at best. "Regina wants you to go shopping for Maleficent."

" _Excuse me_?"

"She's worried about her in the lighthouse on her own and isn't sure how she's getting food, so she wants you to take her this stuff-" Emma pushed the list across the counter and smiled brightly at the confused horror on Ruby's face. "And make sure she's not, y'know, dead again or something."

"Why me?"

Emma shrugged. "Apparently Regina remembered this morning that you're next in line after David to be my Deputy."

Ruby picked up the list gingerly, glancing over the things on it before sighing dramatically.

"What if she eats me?"

"Your a wolf Rubes," Emma slid off her stool and gulped back a few mouthfuls of coffee. "Just eat her first."

* * *

"I'll be upstairs."

Regina reached out to grasp her sister's arm as the taller woman passed her and Emma shuffled from foot to foot, looking distinctly like she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut and instead watched as the redhead climbed the stairs in yoga pants. She closed her mouth quickly and wondered where the hell Regina managed to find clothes that looked like they were goddam  _painted_  on and luckily her lingering gaze went unnoticed by the others as they fell into a well of tension.

"Come through," Regina said eventually and Mary Margaret looked towards her husband for a moment before both Charmings followed Regina into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar. Emma shuffled her feet, risked a final glance at Zelena as the witch disappeared upstairs and followed with a sigh. They should have called ahead: at least if they'd done  _that_  she wouldn't be confronted with the sight of Regina and Zelena in tight lycra.

"…didn't think she'd be roaming around the house."

Emma locked eyes with Regina as the older woman poured coffee and rolled her eyes. She had told her parents over and over again that Zelena was doing just that – to the point at which Mary Margaret had asked snippily whether Emma was more concerned about the witch that had tried to steal her brother than she was about the baby himself – but it seemed the princess was determined to pretend otherwise for the moment.

"She wasn't. Not to begin with at least but she's proven she can be trusted with the remote control and the drier so I re-examined her sentence," Regina quipped as she pushed mugs all around, coming to Emma last and raising an eyebrow pointedly. Emma got the message and shrugged minutely – no, she didn't know what the hell this was about, but yes she did think it was probably going to be dumb.

"I'm surprised Regina," David said with a hint of amusement, inhaling the coffee and getting the look of a man who had forgotten what a day without caffeine felt like. "You never used to go soft on prisoners."

"This prisoner has better manners than some of my previous ones," Regina said with a wry smile before sliding into a seat opposite the Charmings. "Listen, I don't mean to be rude-"

Emma snorted into her mug and earned herself a reproachful glance from Regina that she only found more entertaining. She was so used to seeing  _Madam Mayor_ dressed finely that to see her in her work-out clothes was quite the treat for Emma's senses; the blonde could have happily just gawped for hours at the impossibly perfect way Regina's waist curved, or the almost imperceptible bead of sweat that was trailing down from the former Queen's collarbone. Emma watched fascinated, blowing on her coffee as she did, as the drop moved slowly across smooth skin and it took the blonde a long moment to realise that Regina had caught her staring.

Brown eyes met green and Regina's expression of annoyance broke for a second in which she nearly smirked, before the Queen seemed to remember herself and turned towards the Charmings.

"What exactly is it you want? I doubt you came here to discuss my living arrangements."

Mary Margaret shook her head as she sipped her coffee, clearly having forgotten about Zelena given the excitement in her eyes and for that Emma was indescribably grateful. Her parents knew full well that she was here more often than she wasn't but for all they knew she was in a constant cycle of arguing with Regina and helping Henry with his homework: she wasn't entirely sure how they'd feel about her introducing Zelena to  _Game of Thrones_  and surprising the collective Mills' with her culinary skills when it came to Thai food.

"No, I came to…" Mary Margaret spoke with casualness that was almost forced which piqued Emma's interest. "Invite you for Christmas Day."

Regina stared at Snow with a level gaze and Emma was amused to watch the indecision dance over her face. She had always thought the other woman was expressive, even when she was just Mayor Mills, but she had never noticed until recently how charming it was when Regina's face was swinging so violently between confusion, joy and hope. Emma barely noticed when her own lips twitched into a smile, but she was glad for it when Regina's gaze swivelled to her and the Queen immediately smiled back.

"That would be lovely." Regina said measuredly, turning back to her once step-daughter with the smile still in place, the small gesture an indicator of quite how far they had come. "Would you like us to bring anything?"

If asked Emma would have sworn she could physically  _feel_  the convivial atmosphere evaporating away with every second of Mary Margaret's silence in the face of such a simple question. The blonde couldn't take her eyes off Regina once again, but this time she was fighting the urge to reach out in comfort as the brunette's face didn't so much fall – sadly, Emma thought, Regina had probably been expecting the response – but instead became grim with acceptance.

"I see."

Mary Margaret shuffled uncomfortably in her seat and looked to her husband and daughter for reassurance that she wasn't saying completely the wrong thing.

"Regina, you can't have thought…"

"That you'd break bread with my sister? Apparently I did. More fool me."

"She tried to take our baby," Mary Margaret with the level, reasonable voice of a schoolteacher.

"Maybe, but she didn't succeed and unless I'm mistaken I  _did_ relieve you of your child and there's room at the table for  _me_."

"I think our history is a little more complex than that and it would hardly be fair to Henry not to have you there."

"And you're just  _assuming_  Henry will be with Emma for Christmas and not with me?"

"Guys," Emma said with a sigh. "Let's not okay?"

Things had been  _so_  good lately and Emma abhorred the thought of all that being for nothing if her mother and Regina got into an argument. Although she couldn't help the surge of annoyance that her parents hadn't even consulted her before deciding on this family Christmas – honestly Emma had been waiting for the right time to ask Regina what kind of pie she should bring over and sneakily conceive to get herself invited to stay the night.

Apparently she was going to have to sacrifice a quiet Christmas with the Mills' that would probably have involved the greatest turkey of all time, Henry enthusiastically playing video games, Zelena finally giving in and letting them try the home-brewed spirits she'd been hoarding for months, and them all collapsing on the sofa to quiet bliss. The plan from that point on hadn't quite developed in Emma's mind as of yet, but it had involved some form of getting drunk and seeing where her heart led her, but now she was going to have to add a crying baby, her parents and probably all of their collective lost souls to the party. Great.

"Emma, can I have a word?"

Regina left the room before she could respond beyond a nod and Emma took a moment to turn towards her parents with exasperation in her eyes.

"Just so you know, I hope Neal teethes for a decade."

* * *

Zelena lay motionless on her bed, staring out of the window into grey skies and chastising herself for being a fool.

She had been feeling, if not  _better_  than certainly  _different_  about so many things lately. The idiot with his dog had been again but Zelena had implored Regina not to make her endure having to  _talk_  about her feelings with a stranger and much to her surprise her sister had listened. And then, almost accidentally, she and Regina had sat and talked about Cora. There had been no new deeds for Zelena to learn – she had been observing her mother and sister for so long that she already knew plenty – but to discover she shared a dislike of beetroot with her blood relations was rather pleasing in a strange little way.

She should have known it wouldn't last. Nothing did, at least not for her, and just when her life had been bearable the rug had been pulled from under her again. Of  _course_  Regina would banish her upstairs rather than inflict her upon the Charmings and of  _course_ Emma would stay silent. She had expected nothing less than hostility from Snow White and her gormless Prince but that her sister and someone she had begun to think of as being a friend acquiesced so easily and let her leave without any objection made her whole body feel numb.

She had been stupid enough to  _want_  a friend, she realised, and Emma Swan had pounced upon that just like Glinda had. It would always happen to her and she was just going to have to accept that: she was too wicked for anyone to love, and every time anyone came close to her they inevitably changed their minds and abandoned her.

She wriggled her fingers, flexing them instinctively despite knowing that nothing was going to happen, but it remained horrifyingly disappointing. She'd had magic all her life and it had been a comfort to her as a youth to be able to do something as simple as close the window from her bed when she felt her father shiver, or given new life to her mother's flowers, but now she was useless in every way. The thought brought tears to her eyes and she turned on her side, curling up and burying her head into the pillow to stem the sobs, anger colliding with fear and sorrow and leaving her feeling overwhelmed with emotion.

Suddenly Zelena's whole body froze.

Something felt decidedly odd. No, not odd, she decided as she raised her hand up to the level of her eyes and saw the green smoke dancing between her fingers once again, weak and forced but undoubtedly there – it felt like coming home.

She sat up sharply, wiping away tears with one hand whilst she stared at the resurgence on the other. It wasn't much, nowhere near the power she'd possessed before but there was definitely something there, some vestige of the power that had been deep in her blood and apparently no pendant could steal entirely. Zelena looked around the room shakily, half-expecting to see Rumpelstiltskin offering her a twisted deal for her magic, or else Regina trying to be  _kind_  by giving her a smattering of it back. But there was no one.

Which wasn't entirely true she realised. There  _were_  people and they were downstairs and if she wished it she could hurt them for hurting her again.

In a haze she got to her feet and crossed the room, leaving her bedroom before she had time to think about things, keeping her eyes constantly on the flicker of emerald, in case the worst happened and it vanished as quickly as it had come. The perspiration that had been drying coolly on her skin after her and Regina's Pilates DVD earlier suddenly felt warm again, her whole body felt alive as it hadn't in months because she was  _still_  more powerful than any of them had realised and she could  _hurt_ them.

But who to hurt? Snow White and her Prince, whose presence had shattered the tiny etching of pleasure she had in this agonising world without a second thought? Emma Swan, another fair-weather friend she had never asked for and had pushed her way in? Or her dratted sister who-

"…I will admit that could work nicely."

"And after we all eat they'll have to leave because the baby will need to sleep so they wouldn't even be in your house for all that long."

Zelena rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth as the anger flared inside her. All she had heard for a week on the magical box was talk of this strange festival that seemed to involve nothing but food and was undoubtedly Emma's favourite day of the year for that reason alone and they were still talking about it  _now_?! From the top of the stairs she watched as Emma glanced over Regina's shoulder towards the kitchen for one perplexing moment before lowering her voice for Regina's benefit. Luckily for Zelena Emma's idea of lowering her voice was still audible in the back rows.

"And if they're not then I give you permission to magically make them think they  _have_ to leave because they left the door unlocked or something."

Regina rolled her eyes but Zelena could see the usual smile on her sister's face that accompanied more or less everything Emma ever said even from a distance.

"So then it'll just be us?"

Emma rocked back on her heels and folded her arms and Zelena considered using her precious fragment of magic to simply bump their heads together. Her lip curled nastily as she wondered whether she could do it brutally enough to kill them both with the blow.

"Yeah I guess, I mean if I'm invited and all?"

"Of course you are," Regina scoffed before lifting her chin and folding her arms too. "I think Henry would like us all having a Christmas together."

"I'd like that too," Emma said sincerely before she burst out laughter. "Oh my god, are you and Zelena going to fight over your gifts like real sisters?"

"We  _are_  real sisters idiot."

"You know what I mean! I'm totally getting you guys dolls of yourselves by the way. Do you think she'll be really pissed that it's green?"

"I would be."

"Well the Wicked Witch of the West only comes green so I'll have to get yours as the crone so she feels better."

"Then  _I'll_ be pissed."

"Yeah, but it's not  _your_  first Christmas your majesty."

"That's not fair at all-"

Whatever else Regina might have said was lost to the sound of Emma laughing gleefully.

"Shut up!"

"Sorry," Emma coughed to cover up the last of her giggles. "I'm sorry."

"Fine," Regina huffed ungraciously. "We should go back. And you can tell your parents that if they want Henry-"

" _And me,_ " Emma added, but Regina carried on as if uninterrupted but for a slightly flicker of her lips.

"Then they have to deal with me  _and_  my sister or else no deal. We're family," Regina added with a small nod, still trying the phrase out and still being unnerved by how it sounded.

"After you," Emma said with a twitching smile, unfolding her arms to gesture back to the kitchen invitingly. Regain swept past but as Emma turned she caught sight of Zelena on the stairs and angled her head to look up. "Hey, is everything okay?"

Zelena curled her fingers tightly to extinguish the magic in her hand, feeling the small spark of power that she had held in her fingertips recede somewhere into the recesses of her body, rendering her magic dormant and untappable at will once again. It would come back, of that she was sure, but Zelena was determined that she would do something worthwhile with it when it did return.

"As well as can be expected," she rolled her eyes huffily and turned her back on Emma, glancing over her shoulder as an afterthought. "Let me know when they're gone. You can stay and watch Regina and I finish our work out."

Zelena smiled wickedly for a moment as Emma turned a violent shade of fuchsia before she ascended the stairs; it was a  _form_  of bashing their heads together at least.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah! Real life and work will insist on getting in the way! Thank you all for the continued support - I'm so glad you're enjoying my attempts to work out my Zelena headcanons and feels! I may have shoved another femslash ship in here for the sake of it!

"Regina?"

Zelena poked her head around the slightly ajar door to her sister's bedroom and sighed in relief at seeing clothes on the bed and hearing water in the en suite. Trying to find her sister after her working hours was usually an easy affair, even allowing for the size of the mansion, but today she had carried two glasses of cider through half the house before finally spotting the rivulets of steam coming from the bathroom that alerted her to Regina's presence. She crossed the bedroom and barged into the adjourning room unashamedly.

"There you are."

Regina jumped immediately at the interruption, having been fairly close to dozing off in the bath from exhaustion, and sent some of her bubble-topped water over the edge of the tub as she twisted in the bath to glare at Zelena, her shock receding to be replaced by sheer irritation. Even without the ability to magically transport herself Zelena had the uncanny knack of appearing out of nowhere, although Regina would concede that it was probably as much about her not being used to sharing her house with somebody possessing even less boundaries than Henry. She narrowed her eyes and forced herself not to so much as fold her arms over her chest. She was damned if she was going to be embarrassed if Zelena clearly wasn't!

"What do you want?" She gritted through clenched teeth, leaning her neck back against the towel she'd placed over the top of the tub, intending to have a relaxing soak rather than be bothered.

"I need you to explain this festival to me again," Zelena said casually as she pulled the wicker clothes basket closer to the bathtub and tentatively sat on it, testing to see whether it would take her weight before she was apparently satisfied and held out one of the glasses towards Regina. The redhead sipped from her own glass and reached out with her newly free hand to inspect the bottles that lined Regina's tub, sniffing at one and grimacing. "This  _Christmas_  nonsense."

Regina rolled her eyes and gripped the glass tightly, gesturing to her - fortunately for her - largely bubble-covered body in the bathtub.

"Can't this wait till I'm dressed?"

Zelena smirked and let her eyes wonder across Regina's body deliberately, as though she was just noticing for the first time that her sister was indeed in the bath. When she returned her gaze to Regina's she spoke with laughter brimming in her voice.

"Don't worry love, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Not on me," Regina growled out. She raised her eyebrow at the smug face Zelena pulled and suddenly remembered all that the other woman had ever said about watching her. "Oh for god's sake, did you at least stop watching The Evil Queen Show when I was in my bedroom?"

"Of course I did, I'm not perverted."

"No, you just watched me in the  _bath._ "

"I didn't  _time_  my watching of you specifically! It's hardly my fault you were such a hedonist back in your land," Zelena snipped as she sipped her cider, crossing her legs haughtily.

Truthfully she had resented the baths to begin with. To Regina they were something simple and readily available but seeing her spoilt little sister indulging in shining marble filled with perfumed water had galled her;  _she'd_ had to make do with a tin bath in the corner of the cottage that had become increasingly mortifying to use as she'd aged and her father had paid no heed to her growth. The memory of that ongoing horror made her shudder even now and it had been that sensation of creeping dread she had recognised in her little sister during the years of the marriage to the King. Zelena had tried to hate her just as much as ever,  _tried_  to see everything through their mother's cold eyes but she simply couldn't and she had loathed the old man as much as Regina had, and revelled in his death along with her sister.

She would have killed him herself, had even thought about doing just that and revealing herself to Regina then but she had been beaten to the kill by Regina's adoring genie and the Queen's swift dismissal of her saviour had soured her in Zelena's eyes yet again. If Regina was so unfeeling and entitled that she threw away someone who adored her so then she certainly didn't deserve a sister who'd kill for her!

Zelena tried not to think of Regina as the Queen anymore. Nearly forty years of bitter resentment was difficult to let go of sometimes but Zelena was glad she had at least never rejoiced in Regina's ordeal with the King: even if she still hated Regina she didn't think she'd be able to look her sister in the eye if she had. They fell into silence for a while; Regina was clearly aware of what she'd seen but Zelena wasn't going to be the one to bring it up – if her sister wanted to talk then it wasn't like she was going anywhere.

"Would you like me to go?" Zelena asked in a quieter voice, staring at the wall rather than look at Regina.

"No," Regina replied softly, leaning her head back against the side of the bath again and staring at the ceiling, closing her eyes for a moment. It was distinctly odd, she mused, that they could go so quickly from bickering to weary silences and with a heavy heart Regina knew she had to put it down to them both just being too damned tired to fight anymore. "What did you want to ask?"

"Would you like me to kill the goose?"

Regina's eyes shot open and the awkward silence of before was immediately replaced with a half-laughed out "What?!"

"The goose," Zelena repeated measuredly, unsure whether she'd missed something. "Henry says that goose is traditional and as yours and Emma's practical skills are appalling I wondered if you'd like me to do it."

"We're not having goose. And even if we  _were_ in this land we don't harvest the livestock ourselves." Regina furrowed her brow and turned towards her sister perplexed. "Unless you've spent the last two months labouring under the assumption that I have a farm hidden in the back yard?"

"I  _know_  you buy everything at markets in this land," azure eyes rolled in indignant annoyance and Regina smirked. "But I wondered whether Henry's talk of a traditional  _Christmas_  meant you wanted to do things properly."

"No," Regina answered in a flat tone, absolutely unable to keep her lips from twitching all the same. "I don't want you to kill a goose."

"It could be my present!"

"I like jewellery and shoes, not carcases."

"Fine," Zelena huffed. "Can I get Henry something at least?" Regina smiled softly as she found genuine affection in her sister's face for Henry. In that moment she realised quite how right Emma was when she said that if their son was able to worm his way into even the most mangled of hearts then he was probably going to be a ladykiller later in life.

"If you like."

"Wonderful. I'll get him that video game he's been talking about-"

"Absolutely not. I've already told Emma-!"

"Yes I know, I know! But  _I_  don't have to listen to you like she does do I?"

"What the hell does that mean?"

Zelena simply smiled smugly at her, apparently amused by a joke Regina had heard neither the punchline nor the set-up for.

"Nothing sister dear, not a thing." Zelena bounced to her feet, smile still in place and finally, much to Regina's delight, seemed to be leaving her in peace. "I'll give you my credit card before you go shopping with Emma later."

"Fine," Regna drawled, sipping her cider and closing her eyes as Zelena did the same to the door. The hot water was soothing and she inhaled the steam deeply, and the cider did make everything more pleasant; Regina was just beginning to feel hazy again when Zelena's words finally registered. "Wait what?"

* * *

"So all this time she's been living off you and she's actually a millionaire?"

The blonde laughed gleefully at the deception, finding the whole thing too funny on Zelena's part to be as incensed by the lie of admission that Regina apparently was. It wasn't as though the Queen had a leg to stand on of course: once again the Wicked Witch had apparently emulated her sister acquiring an entirely fake bank account with magic the moment she had arrived in this world. Emma had the vague feeling that as a law enforcer she should probably find something iffy about the pilfered money but given that Henry had lived off the Mayor's bounty too and the laws in Storybrooke were usually a little off-kilter she didn't worry about it too much. Instead all she could think of was that Zelena's couture wardrobe made much more sense now and it at least explained how Walsh had afforded his apartment.

"Apparently so."

"Then why the hell was she living in that farm house on the corner of town? Was it literally just for the storm cellar and irony?"

Regina rolled her eyes and her shoulders in answer, but Emma got the feeling that masked underneath Regina's mild ire was something resembling amusement and she grinned again, shaking her head as she cast her gaze back to the practically empty road. These women…

"Well it'll come in handy for Henry. I swear every year he gets less stuff and somehow it costs more money."

"He's growing up Miss Swan, I don't think a stuffed bear will suffice anymore."

"Argh, I know," Emma let out an exaggerated whine. "Can't we just skip these years and have him back when he's like thirty and I can just get him socks like I got David?"

"You bought your father  _socks_?"

Regina's scrunched up face of disgust would have been enough to make Emma laugh again had it not been for the very real and serious concern she had for getting her father something that was actually decent. She'd never done the parent-present after all, have  _barely_  done the present thing at all apart from Henry, so this year was something of a learning curve.

"Why, what'd you get him?"

Regina scoffed and smiled disbelievingly as she glanced at Emma.

"Are you  _serious_?"

"I thought you guys were getting to be friends," the blonde shrugged.

"That may be, but I doubt Mary Margaret and David will want a gift from  _me_."

"I don't know, my mom's been talking about whether it'd be impolite to turn up without something for  _Zelena_  so I'd say you're definitely in the Snow White Gift Club."

"Wonderful," Regina drawled, the sarcasm dripping from her lips as she mentally started to think of the most practical, unsentimental thing she could possibly get for her once step-daughter. It helped that Snow was a new mother as it opened up a whole world of easy gifts; perhaps a toy of some kind? A mobile filled with-

"No apples," Emma said suddenly, turning to catch Regina's eye. "I know you were thinking it."

"You know nothing of the sort Miss Swan."

The blonde smirked, knowing when Regina was evasively  _not_  telling a lie just as easily as she knew when the other woman was lying. She didn't push the point though and instead allowed a comfortable silence to seep over them for a moment. They had been driving for an hour already – leaving town had been a momentary ordeal but Regina had recovered quickly from the temporary loss of her magic – and Emma was pleased that they had managed to go that whole time without arguing once. Truly, the thought of the fortune they were about to spend on Henry had united them like never before.

As far as Emma could tell Christmas wasn't shaping up too badly at all. The thought of the  _whole_  family being together filled her with a tiny bit of dread but she figured that was perfectly normal, the sort of normal she had never really known in her life, and hopefully they would be able to get through the day calmly and without incident. Holding things at Regina's house made it all a lot simpler and Emma was ridiculously grateful that she didn't have to actually  _do_  anything at all apart from sit and eat with her parents, her brother, her son, his other mother and her sister and-

 _Shit_ , Emma thought suddenly as a nagging penny she had been unable to get out of her mind lately finally dropped. Along with it was her stomach and she gripped the steering wheel a touch tighter as she tried to observe Regina out of the corner of her eye. She'd been building herself up to the day, hoping to find an actual decent present for Regina Mills – not an easy feat at all – and maybe even ask her if they could ever eat a meal without Henry's video games and Zelena's mood swings as their background ambiance but in planning how to find the absolutely most perfect present and get herself a matching underwear set  _just in case_  she'd completely forgotten about something kind of important.

And she was an idiot for that.

"So…is Robin gonna have to fight David for who gets to carve up the turkey?" Regina turned towards her with perplexed surprise all over her face and Emma forced herself to laugh as though she could ever be amused by anything to do with Robin and Regina's relationship. "'Cus I gotta say I think Zelena has a point about the Charmings only being good at swinging swords rather than using a blade properly so we might need someone to do the honours."

"I'm perfectly capable, as I'm sure are you," Regina muttered, turned her gaze back out of the window for just a second before her head snapped back to Emma. "Unless this is your painfully unsubtle way of asking if you can invite your boyfriend?"

"What? No…god  _no_." Emma pulled a face and made sure she had perfect eye-contact with Regina when she emphatically said: "Hook is not my boyfriend. Not for lack of trying on his part," she added wryly. "But I'm definitely not going there."

"I apologise. I assumed after your big kiss-"

"Wait, how did you know about that?"

Regina shrugged noncommittally. "It was a small island. And your mother never could keep a secret."

Emma rolled her eyes.

"I regretted it about three seconds after it happened."

"Really?" Regina asked with a smirk as she turned the map in her hand slightly and pointed Emma down a new street that led them straight into traffic.

"Really. Can you, I don't know, get Tink to seduce him or something? Anything to keep him away from me."

"You want me to sacrifice my only friend on the altar of your comfort?"

Emma turned her head from the road – they weren't moving anyway – and stared at the other woman's almost joking inquiring face. But there was something in the question that bothered Emma more than she could say and she slumped back in her seat, holding the wheel only loosely as she felt waves of tingly nonsense overcome her. She shouldn't say what she wanted to say, but somehow the words were coming from her lips before she could stop herself.

"You do realise she's not your  _only_  friend anymore?"

Regina smiled softly. She was perfectly aware of that, it would be difficult to object to the moniker given the amount of time the blonde spent in her home these days, but hearing it out loud sent peals of warmth through her body. Warmth that knew how to travel quickly much to Regina's chagrin.

"I know."

How long they sat just smiling at each other like a pair of imbeciles Regina couldn't say, but the moment was broken quite suddenly by the blast of a horn behind them and after Emma rolled her eyes and turned to mouth something uncouth at the man behind them they continued down the street in silence until they pulled off with a dozen or so other cars following the same route.

"Is that it?" Regina leaned towards Emma's side of the car, close enough that her shoulder pressed against Emma's so she could get an entirely unnecessary closer look; out of the corner of her eye the blonde grew distracted by the streetlights making Regina's hair shine, musing vaguely that it was impossible how light so stark and unflattering could still look good on Regina.

"Erm, yeah," Emma blinked to snap her attention back to the car lot they were pulling into. "Biggest mall in a fifty mile radius."

"If we tell anyone about this you realise they'll be demanding we do everyone's shopping from now on?"

Emma smirked conspiratorially and nudged Regina's shoulder, happiness coursing through her at the fact that the other woman was still close enough for her to do just that.

"Well I won't tell if you won't."

* * *

 "I didn't expect you'd be back  _this_  soon."

Ruby hesitated in the doorframe, clutching the basket tightly in both hands and feeling inexplicably small despite having already dealt with the overwhelming nerves that had accompanied visiting Maleficent for the first time that very morning. She still felt twitchy, but she had to admit it was to the blonde woman's credit that she hadn't done anything despicable; instead she had just looked Ruby up and down, smirked slightly and slowly listed the things she wanted.

"I figured you'd want to eat today," Ruby replied with a smile lacking in her usual confidence but not warmth. "And I wasn't busy so…"

"How very thoughtful of you."

Ruby felt her heart rattle in her chest with anxiety. As if the lighthouse by the harbour hadn't been foreboding when they'd all known it to be an empty creaking wreck!

The long walk through the derelict bottom floors of the building to reach the winding staircase that brought her to the rooms Maleficent was living in had felt longer than ever. The setting was creepy enough, half-rotten boats scattered around with the smell of salt and cold permeating the air and being especially pungent to Ruby's nose, but the thought of who was waiting for her made it all the more overwhelming.

She wasn't Regina, she couldn't waltz in here safe in the knowledge that her magic could save her ass if she needed it; nor was she Emma, who had faced down Maleficent in her even more frightening visage. She was a goddamn werewolf and she tried to be brave but a woman who had scars all over her hands, horns on her head and sat in a fucking ratty leather armchair like it was a throne of skulls was a little too much for her!

"For heaven's sake come in child. I won't bite."

Ruby swallowed the lump in her throat but held her head high as she crossed the room to the area she guessed Maleficent was using as a kitchen given the invitingly huge fire that was roaring: the waitress had to admit the warmth soothed her nerves even just a little bit and she tried to relax. Maleficent was far from being human – not that  _she_  could claim to be either – but the knowledge that she still needed warmth and food made her slightly less terrifying.

"I got you most of what you asked for, but it turns out I was right and there's no wild boar running around here," Ruby laughed nervously.

"Pity." Maleficent turned away from staring into the inky darkness outside her window and graced Ruby with a small smile as she got to her feet with mercurial finesse. "Is there truly nothing to hunt in this land?"

"There's probably deer but, well, they're in the woods and it's probably not a good idea for you to start a fire 'cus our Fire Marshall used to be the Big Bad Wolf and he's a creep who’d probably make trouble for you-”

“Does he make trouble for _you_?”

Ruby turned and felt her mouth run immediately dry. Usually her instincts served her well, but in the time it had taken for her to glance into her basket and back towards Maleficent the blonde woman had become close enough for Ruby to see the creases at the corner of her eyes. The dark fairy wore the same sort of dress Ruby guessed she had sported in the Enchanted Forest – where the hell she had got it from Ruby didn’t like to speculate – and she hadn’t realised how bizarrely homesick the sight of a bodice and skirt could make her feel until now.

Ruby tried to keep eye-contact with the other woman, hoping somehow that appearing confident would have the same effect on Maleficent as it was supposed to on wild animals, but she quickly found she couldn’t and instead her eyelids fluttered and she became fascinated with staring at her own hands. It was pathetic, she knew that without needing to be told, and with a defiant breath she looked back up and tried to smile nonchalantly, like she would to anyone in the diner.

“Erm… he keeps asking me out, but nothing too bad.”

Maleficent nodded slowly and glided closer, reaching out to examine the produce Ruby had unpacked.

“What is this?”

“Organic cheese. I got it because I figured you’d be more used to the taste.”

Maleficent inclined her head at the gesture, although Ruby couldn’t be entirely sure that the older woman actually understood what she was talking about. The fairy ran long fingers over the food, looking mostly disinterested until she turned back towards Ruby, taking a step closer and nearly making the waitress yelp at the sudden proximity.

Maleficent closed her eyes momentarily and inhaled slowly; it only lasted the merest of moments but Ruby instinctively copied the action and knew immediately what Maleficent was doing. The scents here were different – not quite human, just like her, but not as noticeable as an ogre or a troll or something else foul – and Ruby allowed her body to relax as an odd and comforting familiarity settled below the surface of her skin and bones. Eventually Maleficent stopped and smirked, levelling her cool gaze on Ruby once again.

“I thought as much.”

“What?”

“Wolf,” Maleficent said simply. She seemed neither perturbed nor offended by Ruby’s status and for that the dark haired woman was glad – Ruby remembered all too well how almost every creature back in their land, magical or otherwise, hated wolves. But Maleficent had tilted her head to the side, an almost challenging look in her otherwise clear eyes and Ruby licked her lips as she straightened her spine properly. She was taller than most other women when she did that but the best she could do with Maleficent was to at least look her square in the eye and Ruby felt suddenly bold.

“ _Dragon_.”

Maleficent’s chuckle did little to stop the shuddering of Ruby’s heart where it had wedged itself in her stomach, but she was able to let out a long-held breath when the woman moved away.

"I need you to take something to Regina for me.”

It was on the tip of Ruby’s tongue to comment that she wasn’t actually the designated arbiter between the two sorceresses but instead she followed the blonde towards the wooden table that was still dented from where the old light had rested for many fake decades. As she got closer and her eyes adjusted to the darker corner Ruby spotted a large sheet of paper, no _parchment_ , she thought with surprise, lain out neatly. On it were a vast and intricate series of lines and curves, some with writing, some without and a number of patterns that looked distinctly familiar.

"Is this a map?" Ruby asked incredulously as she looked over the parchment – where in the hell had Maleficent even  _found_ parchment in this land – and the carefully drawn lines that formed a blueprint. "It's Storybrooke right?"

Maleficent smiled almost imperceptibly and nodded. Truthfully she was relieved that she hadn't lost her touch in all respects in this new world and she could still do some things with the same deftness she had when she'd been at the height of her powers. The map had been easy enough but Regina could undoubtedly lay her hands on one of those without trouble; she had needed Maleficent’s very particular skills for this task.

"This is Town Hall, and we're here and-  _did that dot just move_?"

"It certainly did," she drawled as she followed Ruby’s line of sight.

"How?" Maleficent raised a sardonic eyebrow at the wolf and Ruby at least had the good graces to look chastised. "Okay, stupid question. But  _why_?"

"I expect Mother Superior is taking her evening stroll."

Ruby looked back at the page and sure enough the little sky blue dot she had noticed before was moving slowly away from the Convent, in which was housed a variety of colours, each vibrant and small on the map. Ruby's eyes swept back to the lighthouse she had already located and a large indigo glow made her smile as she realised what she was looking at.

"It shows all the magic users in town right?"

Maleficent smile remained slight but turned triumphant and her eyes narrowed appraisingly on Ruby. She had to admit, upon first glance she had assumed Regina had answered her request for the Queen to send someone interesting with her food by simply picking the prettiest face she saw: she hadn't expected Ruby to have any semblance of intelligence.

"It does indeed."

"What does she want it for?"

Maleficent shrugged her shoulders with disinterest and ran a long finger over the spot that represented herself on the map. It was certainly gratifying to see its glow be so abundant, Realthough there were other dots on the map that gave her pause. She was far from being a weakling, even after her long incarceration and not-nearly accomplished recovery, but there were others in this town that shone considerably brighter than she.

She cast her eyes momentarily towards the Mayoral mansion and felt her eyebrow twitch. Regina’s deep violet was notably absent for the moment, as was the pearly white glow Maleficent had noticed rarely left the house, but there was a flickering patch of green that she suspected the Queen would find interesting. Maleficent certainly found it so herself, along with certain other points on the map, and she immediately decided on a course of action.

“After the last time I tried to question Regina’s motives I think I would rather not know.”

Ruby inclined her head at that wisdom, nodding idly as she looked over the rest of the town. Keeping out of Regina’s way had become something of an art-form for her since the curse – either of them – had broken.

“Does she need it tonight?”

“No,” Maleficent said offhandedly, wondering how many days she could stall the former Queen. It would be an interesting experiment to see how quickly the emerald spot grew and if it would become whole again… “It isn’t finished yet.”

Ruby nodded again, happy to accept what she was told and Maleficent immediately pushed the map to the back of her mind.

“Come. Tell me about this  _Fireball Whiskey_."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Reams of apologies for how long this has taken. I've recently started a new job so I've been a bit distracted by things I don't like half as much as I do Zelena and my ongoing headcanons about Emma's confusing love for the Mills women. But without further ado - have another chapter and thank you so much for sticking with me!

Twas the night before Christmas and Emma Swan was freezing her ass off.

She lingered on the porch, hopping from boot to boot in a mostly fruitless attempt to keep her body warm after she had made the questionable decision to brave the cold night air in search of the place she felt more at home than she did in her parent's house and considered whether she should have just bitten the bullet and texted Regina. A text would have been easy. A text would have let her know whether she was welcome in this house where three people she loved slept so late on Christmas Eve but a text had opened up the possibility that she might be shot down and so Emma had completely chickened out and left a note for her parents before jumping in the Bug and heading for Milfin Street.

And unsurprisingly given that it was getting close to one in the morning the house was dark and quiet and a lot more intimidating than Emma had anticipated given how much time she had been spending there lately. Of course the house itself wasn't the problem: rather the sisters that were contained within and the possibility that both women and Henry would think she was a total idiot because of the plan that had formed in her mind when she'd been lying in bed, knowing her son was elsewhere, and longing to greet the day with the Mills' rather than the Charmings.

Emma still couldn't put her finger on exactly what she wanted from either of the women. Since the curse had broken and Zelena had been defeated – and Emma's faint hopes of returning to New York had crumbled in the face of Henry's excitement to be back – her emotions had been in a whirlwind. Or a  _cyclone_ appropriately enough. The shopping trip with Regina had meant them spending hours together perusing shelves, bickering over whether less was more and ending up having to carry things back to the car twice before continuing on. It had been by far the most enjoyable trip Emma remembered ever taking with anyone who wasn't her son. Once they'd got back the mansion though Regina had sent Henry to bed and immediately followed, offering Emma only the vaguest of "Goodnights" before leaving the blonde perplexed and with only Zelena's company.

Which wasn't a  _bad_  thing exactly and she'd ended the night dozing on the sofa top to toe with the redhead, a blanket pulled over both of them as the black and white movie on TV ended and she debated whether sleeping in a real bed wouldn't honestly outweigh the feeling of sleeping with a soft, warm woman pressed against her. She'd stayed. They'd slept. Regina had pursed her lips in the morning when she came down and found them and said nothing as they untangled themselves from the blanket and each other, all the while Emma's cheeks flushing and a feeling that she had done something wrong washing over her when all they had been doing was  _sleeping_.

That had been a whole six days ago though and while she had heard from Regina to formalise plans and decide that it would be better for Henry to stay at the mansion for the night, they hadn't exactly  _spoken._  She had texted Zelena but the redhead never replied to anything in electronic form so Emma was at a loss where she stood. In general. At the moment she was technically stood on the porch like an idiot – which was probably the first thing to do something about!

Emma took a few long strides off the porch so she could look up at the window, as though anyone was likely to just be waiting there for her to greet like a ( _don't finish that thought Swan,_  she told herself forcibly,  _you're not a prince, this isn't a fairytale and they are definitely NOT damsels_ ), and she tried not to wonder, as she had been for those whole six days, what it had been that had meant she'd woken happier than she'd been in months after that night on the couch. It could have been Zelena's body next to hers still, it could have been Regina's face being the first thing she saw – however indignant it was although Emma could have sworn the brunette had been smiling affectionately at her for just a split second – but she was damned if she wasn't going to begin her Christmas with the same glow.

They couldn't be  _that_  annoyed at her disturbing the quiet of the house right? They never usually minded her just dropping by at any hour of the day – although admittedly she had never come this late before – and Henry at least would be happy to see her in the morning. And she didn't really have to disturb anyone at all. She had a key after Regina had pushed it into her hands a month ago and told her not to get it cut or let Mary Margaret get her hands on it under any circumstance so it wasn't like she needed to wake anybody up…

"Screw it," she muttered finally and decisively, the thought of her mother enough to remind her that though she loved her parents they and Neal were not the people she wanted to be with on Christmas morning. They were the family she had always dreamed of when she'd been in the foster system, a mother who baked, a father who was strong and a little brother to protect and all of them cocooned safely together; but the fucked up Mills sisters and her nosy little son were the family she would  _choose_ every time.

Reaching into her pocket Emma shivered in the cold air – admittedly getting out of the cold air was part of her decision – and slipped the key into the lock. Trying to be silent and stealthy as she had been most her life she closed the door behind her and resisted the urge to sigh at the sudden burst of heat that came over her body.

God bless Regina and her insistence on the house being near tropical even in the winter so she could wear her skirts still!

"Oh god yes," she whispered to herself as she pulled the hat from her head and unwrapped her scarf quickly. She neatly placed them and her coat on the hook that she always used before reaching down to pull off her boots; a warm shudder shot through her body as each part that had been freezing began to warm up and with a smile on her face at the combination of warmth and  _quiet_  she tiptoed into the den and sat on the ludicrously comfortable sofa she and Henry had fought many gaming battles on and had been her and Zelena's cosy nest the other day.

She glanced towards the corner of the room where Regina had erected a frankly audacious tree that looked as though she'd had it imported from Norway and had lights that twinkled brilliantly when the electricity was on. When Regina had turned it on at the beginning of the month Henry had made them all sit in the dark for the best part of the evening – to get the full effect, he had insisted – and they'd played a game of Monopoly that Regina had won easily despite Zelena's blatant cheating.

Emma smiled at the memory and waved her hand confidently, her smile only increasing when the lights came on, bathing her in their fairy like glow. She was warm, she was comfortable, she felt like she was in a grotto and tomorrow morning she would awake feeling like she was at home. Even if it wasn't real.

She closed her eyes to push the thought away. Henry was here and Henry was her home and that was enough; she kicked her feet up onto the sofa and reached onto the back for the blanket they'd used the other day only to find it gone. Feeling encouraged from her earlier attempt she waved her hand again, thinking of the warmth of the simple fabric and how much comfort it had brought and immediately she felt herself encased.

Snuggling down she closed her eyes.

* * *

As Emma Swan closed her eyes Zelena Mills opened hers.

Something was definitely wrong. She could feel it in her bones with the same instincts that had kept her alive in Oz those many years and she sat up in bed, her body immediately tense and her fingers flexing as magic burst forth. The comforting warmth of her bed vanished immediately and Zelena found herself being engulfed in green smoke and pulled from her room by magic that had been as familiar as breathing to her once took her to the ground floor of the house.

For a long moment she stood still, her breathing heavy, not quite able to comprehend what she had done. Her magic had sparked from her fingers several times now but she had always been able to make it go away; the thought of it overwhelming her frightened Zelena more than any intruder ever could but that was precisely what it had done. She hadn't felt like  _that_  since she'd been a girl, terrified of everything she could do and desperate for a way to get rid of it so she could please her father.

_No, don't think about him you idiot, not tonight, not ever._

Taking a deep breath she wrapped her arms around herself and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness, having almost forgotten in the midst of her brief lack of control that she should be on her guard still. No one seemed to have tampered with the front door but there was something amiss and she was determined to find out what. She knew she should get Regina really; her magic, though still very much  _present_  apparently, was temperamental and something she didn't really want anyone else knowing about just yet. If she had to use it defend the house then she was just as likely to blow it up as she was to give the game away, so perhaps…

No. She had to do this. Whoever this person was, and for all she knew it was Henry getting a glass of water, they might not know about her current  _problem_  so they might not wish to take their chances with her. And whoever was foolish enough to potentially break into the home of the Evil Queen was clearly too stupid to know that she was supposedly powerless anyway! Cautiously, and with her hand ready to "defend" herself she crept through the lower floor of the house. In the kitchen the hum from the refrigerator seemed almost deafening and she quickly left that room to head into the den.

Emma sighed in her sleep and Zelena rolled her eyes, immediately lowering her hand with a huff and a degree of relief. The rush of fear that had inspired the burst of magic had left her entirely and Zelena felt calm again, if rather agitated that Emma seemed to be covered in the blanket that usually resided on  _her_  bed.

"Stealing from another orphan Saviour?" She muttered quietly as she came closer and beheld the sleeping princess before her. Emma, it seemed, was able to calm her magic and temper by her sheer presence even if Zelena had no notion of  _why_  she was present on this occasion. Casting a glance towards the little fairy lights that were shining around the room she reached out to carefully brush a strand of hair from Emma's face, causing her to stir slightly.

"Hmmmf?"

Though she would never utter the words by the light of day Zelena had to admit she had grown incredibly fond of Emma Swan; she had loved the blonde before she'd let herself admit she loved Regina because it was easier to love Emma. Of course she didn't  _always_  love Emma, Zelena thought with irritation as she wrapped her fingers around the blanket and tugged it off the younger woman immediately making Emma spark awake and sit up.

"What!?" Regaining herself quickly Emma raised a hand to brush her hair away from her face and bite her lip. "Oh shit, did I wake you?"

"Yes," she said shortly, waiting for Emma to sit up before slumping down next to her with a pointed yawn. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep at David and Mary Margaret's," Emma admitted, reaching out to take the blanket tentatively from Zelena and toss it over both of their legs this time. "Figured I'd rather be here in the morning anyway and I hoped you guys wouldn't mind." Biting her lip again Emma glanced at the ceiling. "You don't think she'll mind do you?"

"If you'd asked she was going to make up the other guest room for you."

"Really? Damnit, I knew I should have…" Emma's brow furrowed. "Why does Regina have more than one guest room? No one ever comes to this town anyway  _and_  there's the rooms over Granny's."

"I came. You came. Henry came. I suppose she knew she'd need three extra rooms eventually."

Emma smiled at the thought. Somehow she never thought of Regina back then, in the pre-Henry, Evil-Queen-to-Mayor adjustment phase when she'd been working out the kinks in the curse and probably building herself a dream home like she was playing the Sims.

"You should go back to be-ahhhh." The yawn overtook her before she could finish and Emma covered her mouth as she felt the other woman get off the sofa.

"Come along, let's put you to bed."

"Did she make up the room just in case?"

"No," Zelena held out her hand. "But I have a big bed and I don't bite and I refuse to let you steal my blanket but it seems you've laid claim to it tonight."

Emma frowned but got to her feet, sure this was either a joke or she was dreaming. Probably both knowing her luck.

"You want me to sleep with you?"

Zelena chuckled and tugged on Emma's hand, pulling her towards the staircase with impatience and not quite the degree of seduction that Emma had vaguely imagined in her private moments.

"Only if you keep your hands to yourself dear."

* * *

If asked Henry Mills would not have been able to remember which of his mothers had taught him that it was easier to rouse an adult on Christmas morning if one was armed with coffee. It felt like more of an  _Emma_  sort of lesson but there was every chance it had come through her by way of Regina so Henry was not inclined to worry about it too much. It didn't really matter to him anymore other than as a particularly inspired means of getting the day started sooner!

He raced downstairs the moment his clock struck seven and turned both the coffee percolator and the copper kettle on, doubting that the advent of Christmas was likely to change his aunt's beverage of choice. Tapping his foot to pass the time Henry tried not to glance towards the presents under the tree - if he did he might be tempted just to peek at and then he'd miss watching his mom smile from ear to ear at everything he opened and loved and after missing last year he was determined that this year should be perfect.

He only hoped she wouldn't mind his adamancy that they wait for Emma too. He should text her, he decided, and get her here sooner rather than later and then waiting wouldn't be problem! Drinks ready and careful not to spill a thing Henry climbed the stairs and went straight to his mom's room. Opening the door with his elbow he slipped into the calm, creamy bedroom and smiled as his mother rolled over beneath the quilt to meet his eye.

"Morning mom! Happy Christmas!"

Regina grinned as she took in the sight of her gloriously ruffled son, home and here for Christmas at last. Only a year might have passed without him but before that things had been difficult for so long and she was determined to enjoy today as the calm after what felt like an eternal storm.

"Merry Christmas sweetie," she sat up as he carefully placed her coffee on the side table. Pointedly she took the other mug from him too and settled that one while he looked confused before tugging on his arm with surprising strength to pull him onto the bed and into her arms.

"Mom!" He laughed and returned the hug though he made a perfunctory attempt to wriggle away for the sake of maintaining some cool although there were precious few other places in the world he wanted to be on Christmas morning than laughing and hugging his mom.

 _If only mom could just_ appear...

Regina almost cried. When she had done this before he has been so much smaller, fitting into her arms perfectly and now he was getting so big she could barely stand it. He would probably be bigger than her next year. A few tears escaped at the thought and she tried not to make it too obvious but as ever Henry somehow just  _knew_  how she was feeling.

"Mom?" He asked with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she sniffed and smiled at him warmly, stroking a hand through his hair before finally releasing him, knowing that if she didn't do it now she probably never would. "Go wake your aunt."

Nodding Henry got to his feet, cast a glance back at his mom to make sure Regina really was alright and, feeling satisfied she was just emotional, he took the tea to the door at the other end of the corridor from his own. He knocked gently, not being as bold as he was with Regina, and when he received no reply simply figured that she really needed the wake-up call!

He opened the door and was immediately greeted back the sight of another woman lying next to his aunt, with blonde hair spilling over the pillow.

"Mom!?"

Emma opened her eyes immediately, jolted awake again in as little as six hours, and after scrambling around to get her bearings she caught sight of a torrent of red curls and remembered. Oh god, she'd meant to go back downstairs after sleeping –  _just sleeping!_  she'd forced herself to think in the half hour she'd lain next to the other woman the night before – in Zelena's bed and here she'd been caught by the most inquisitive person possible.

Great.

Finally turning so she could see the door she found Henry looking perplexed but thankfully not horrified. Which wasn't too bad she supposed.

"What?!" A voice rang through the hallway.

Okay that was worse.

"Hey kid," she greeted cheerfully, opting to behave as though this was perfectly normal and hope everyone else just rolled with it. She pushed back the covers and hopped out, making sure that Henry saw quite how dressed she was and hopefully prevent this escalating.

"Not  _you_  mom," Henry shouted back to Regina and it struck Emma as amusing that she had always assumed Regina would rather wear flats than allow shouting in her house. " _Emma_  mom," he grinned and hurried to put down the tea before throwing his arms around Emma. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I wanted to be here with you guys this morning so I came over late last night," Emma cuddled him back, grinning away herself. With their new memories they had spent years worth of Christmases together but this felt like a whole new adventuring in festivities!

"But what are you doing  _here_?"

Emma pulled a slight face at the questioning but knew it was to be expected with Henry. She carried on casually, praying she got it out before Regina appeared.

"Zelena took pity on me and saved me from throwing my back out on the couch when I slipped in last night."

Which was perfectly true, Emma thought, but didn't prevent the sinking feeling in her stomach when she considered how close Regina was at the moment. And Regina in her pajamas. Which she knew were just as silky as the ones she had inadvertently touched in her sleepy state last night on the taller woman. She wasn't sure whether to find the fact that the Mills sisters seemed to have invested in practically matching silk nightwear endearingly sisterly or underwear-ruining sexy.

_Damnit Swan!_

Luckily Henry seemed content with the explanation and immediately jumped into the spot she had left to bounce the bed and shake Zelena awake.

"Aunt Z wake up! It's Christmas!"

Emma laughed.

"Kid, I think that might be lost on someone who doesn't really know what today is."

"Hmmmfp." Emma rolled her eyes at the lone response from the redhead. Zelena was far from the deepest sleeper, and had tossed and turned quite a bit in the night, but now she seemed dead to the world and Emma pulled back the curtains to let in the bright light, earning herself a groan of annoyance from the bed.

"Come onnnnnn, I made you tea the way you like it!"

That at least elicited movement from the redhead although not much and Emma rolled her eyes again and rolled her shoulders to warm herself up before she rubbed her hands together theatrically.

"Move over kid, let a pro take a shot," Henry obliged with a grin and Emma wondered briefly whether Zelena would actually kill her on the spot if she dumped water on her. Probably best not to find out, she decided and disregarded magic. Which left one clear option. With a small run up she launched herself onto the bed, jolting it twice as much as Henry had at least and making both her laughing son and the grumbling witch bounce into sitting positions.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Assisting my son in beginning this magical day," Emma said innocently once they had settled, shuffling until she was casually sat against the mountain of pillows Zelena never used. "Speaking of which, don't I get coffee kid?"

"Only if you're asleep!"

Emma pulled a face (Henry thought it had probably been Regina to teach him the coffee in bed trick after all) and watched Zelena sniff at her tea before apparently deciding it was acceptable. In the doorway she didn't see Regina arrive and so missed the brief flicker of sorrow that came over the Queen's face at the sight of the tableau before Regina covered it with a smile.

"As a matter of interest Miss Swan did you plan to stay dressed like that all day?"

Emma turned her head towards the voice, ready to defend her jeans and vest when she was greeted by early morning, slightly tousled and dressed in purple silk Regina. She stared instead of replying.

"Can't you magic her something mom?" Henry asked as he got off the bed, either wishing to move the whole family downstairs or somehow drag his mom onto the pile. He doubted the latter would happen anytime soon, though it was something he thought he could work towards.

Regina smiled indulgently at Henry but kept her gaze determinately off where her sister sat next to Emma on the bed. The worst of it – Regina couldn't resist a quick peek – was that Zelena wasn't even looking at Emma as the blonde clearly observed her sister.

"As we're all awake and here now," Regina had overheard enough to know that Emma had been here all night. She did not want to think about it anymore than she had to though she was determined not to begrudge Zelena this, she  _couldn't_ , she owed her that much at least. "Shall we go down and let Henry at his presents?"

Henry did not need the offer to be made twice and was off the bed running down the stairs so quickly that even Emma felt obliged to call after him to be careful and slow the hell down! Alone with the sisters Emma felt marginally more awkward but still smiled as she got off the bed and, feeling bold, crossed to where Regina still stood to lean in and press her lips against her cheek carefully.

"Merry Christmas Regina."

Regina smiled before she could stop herself, a real, true, slight-baffled-given-where-she-had-found-Emma but fluttery sort of smile.

"And you Emma, I-" She was going to say she was glad that Emma was here. God knows it was true and she was wrestled with herself over whether to ask the Saviour to stay last night, but apparently her sister had beaten her to it. "I don't want this really," she finished finally, handing the mug of coffee in her hand to Emma. "You have it. Merry Christmas dear," she darted around Emma to lean up and kiss her sister's cheek too.

"You could have told me that this day began earlier than other days," Zelena's morning grumbling was at least something that had become familiar and Regina drew comfort from it.

"And here was I thinking peasants were attuned to rising with the dawn."

"I was always supposed to be royalty it seems," Zelena replied with a smirk.

"I suppose you would have been a better Princess than Snow at least," Regina said with consideration as she led them from the room. "And Emma."

"Hey I might have been a terrible Princess, but I'd be an awesome Knight, don't you think?"

Both sisters rolled their eyes and Emma grinned. Okay, awkwardness abating. Amusement rising.


End file.
